It seems thanks in part to Donald Trump’s extreme views and loud opinions, illegal immigration has the been among the most hotly debated subjects within the Republican primary. All the Anti-Illegal immigration discussion would lead us to assume that illegal immigration is at some historically unprecedented high level and that droves of illegals are strolling across the border at an alarming rate. However, it seems the truth is that illegal immigration is actually at its lowest point in well over a decade, as several recent studies can confirm. The number of illegal immigrants in this country has declined every year since 2008, and is now at its lowest level since 2003, while the percentage of undocumented immigrants is at its lowest point since the turn of the century. So the question seems to be, why is there such a big Fuss over this topic in this year’s election?
A report from the Pew Research Center shows a decline of nearly a million unauthorized immigrants, to 11.3 million, from 2007 to 2014. An even more recent survey, from the Center for Migration Studies, a New York think tank, indicates that the number of illegal immigrants has now fallen to 10.9 million, a large drop driven largely by declining arrivals from Mexico. According to Pew, for the first time since the 1940s, Mexican migrants have been leaving the United States at a greater rate than they have entered. Roughly 11.7 million Mexican-born immigrants, roughly half of them undocumented, are now in the USA, down from 12.8 million in 2007. These type of facts make GOP frontrunner Mr. Trump’s ideas such as building a massive Wall along the Mexican border and mass deportation efforts, spending billions in the process, look quite illogical. The fact is, more Mexicans are leaving the US than coming. Hence there is likely no need for a billion dollar Great Wall of Mexico. It seems events taking place overseas such as the terrorist attacks in Paris have driven the border security panic rhetoric, when in fact the border is more tightly patrolled than ever. Apprehensions at the southwestern border, a rough measure of illegal crossings, have been cut by about two-thirds since September 11th, 2001.
