What Immigrant Problem?

Bryan Curtis at The Daily Beast shows that Arizona is not “under seige” by illegal immigrants as the governor of that state claims.  In fact, because of the recession, they’re leaving in droves.

The latest numbers from the Department of Homeland Security, released in February, show the illegal immigrant population in America dropped from 11.6 million in January 2008 to 10.8 million in January 2009. That’s a loss of nearly 7 percent. The last time the illegal population dipped was in the late 1980s, when a federal law transformed a few million undocumented immigrants into American citizens overnight. So to the extent that we are in a historic moment for illegal immigration, it’s historic because immigrants are abandoning America in droves.

And border crossings by illegal immigrants have dropped substantially.

In 2000, 725,000 people were apprehended illegally crossing the border in Arizona. By 2006, the number of apprehensions had fallen to 510,000. By 2009, it had plummeted to 249,000.

…

“You’ve got a situation where the perception of people in Arizona, quite reasonably, is that the border isn’t secure,” says Edward Alden, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “And yet by all the measurements we’ve put in place, it’s more secure than it has ever been.”

Another myth is that the federal government isn’t doing enough so the states have to step in. But besides building fences, there has been tougher enforcement, beginning during the last two years of the Bush administration and continuing through the present day. But if we can ratchet up emotions and continue to convince people that we’re “under siege,” as Senator Lindsey Graham said to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, the public can be convinced to get behind a law that is draconian, not to mention unconstitutional.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.