Bad economy = less illegal immigrants ?

Oh brother...Well first the economy is going quite well thank you very much. But the LA Times decides to kill two birds with one stone...a bad economy is linked to the flow of illegal immigrants beginning to lessen. Of course! It can't have anything to do with stepped up enforcement and the passing of stricter laws against employers, could it? Nah!

Tide of illegal immigrants ebbs

By Marla Dickerson, Los Angeles Times
MEXICO CITY - Lorenzo Martinez, an illegal immigrant who has lived in Los Angeles for six years, has a message for his kin in Mexico's Hidalgo state: Stay put.

The steady construction work that allowed him to send home as much as $1,000 a month in recent years has disappeared. The 36-year-old father of four said desperation is growing among the day laborers with whom he competes for odd jobs.

Sporadic employment isn't the half of it. Martinez said anxiety is also running high among undocumented workers about stepped-up workplace raids, deportations and increasing demands by U.S. employers for proof that they are in the country legally.

"Better not to come," Martinez said of anyone thinking about crossing into the U.S. illegally. "The situation is really bad."

That message seems to be getting through. There are numerous signs of a slowdown in illegal immigration.

What's behind the apparent decline?

Some say it's primarily the slump in U.S. construction, which has been a magnet for undocumented workers over the last few years -- one in five Hispanic immigrants works in the building trades. Others say it's largely the result of stepped-up enforcement.