Unauthorized Immigration Is Down, Down Down Down Down

Given what a major issue/demonized scapegoat undocumented immigrants have become this election cycle (complete the danged fence! papers please! invasion!), you might think that the rate of unauthorized immigration is rising higher and higher every minute we fall to build a Great Wall of America. The truth is, however, the anti-immigrant rhetoric doesn't correspond as expected: the actual rate of unauthorized immigration is down two-thirds since the beginning of the decade, according to a report out of the Pew Research Center.

What has caused this decline? As the ImmigrationProf Blog puts it: "It's the (Labor) Market, Stupid." Immigrants will brave the murderous desert and accept living in constant fear of deportation to come to America to fill open jobs, but as the U.S. economy has hit rough times, the immigration rate has gone down correspondingly. It's a basic supply-and-demand equation working more perfectly than it often does in the real world. So even though the economic crisis has resulted in a sudden spike in immigrant-scapegoating, the flow of immigration has adjusted to match our economic fortunes. Arizona, which seems to be so terribly concerned about undocumented immigrants overrunning its state, saw a decrease in that population from 2008-2009, along with other southern states.

So why is it that, even as the rate of undocumented immigration has been going down, the rate of hate crimes against Latinos — the scapegoats of today's immigration debate — has been going up? Hate crime statistics from the FBI, which monitor trends, showed an increase in anti-Latino attacks from 2003-2007, with a slight decrease in 2008 (but not to pre-2003 levels). Immigrant-bashing is the most politically correct form of racism and bigotry one can engage in today, whether you're a politician or a Ku Klux Klan member, and a number of Republican leaders have answered the call as appealing to broader voter base that fearmongering about African-Americans attacking white people and couples of the same sex getting married.

Arizona governor Jan Brewer makes up stories about beheadings by undocumented immigrants in the desert, rhetoric about "anchor babies" evolves into concerns about "terror babies," and we've seen a surge in nativist extremist groups in the past year. The definition of a nativist extremist group, by-the-by, is not just any old hate group: it's one that actively confront or harasses immigrants, which can involve serious violence.

The utilization of anti-immigrant rhetoric is by some an expression of hatred and intolerance, by others a political ploy (obviously so, in the case of turncoats like Arizona Sen. John McCain), and rarely deals with the actual facts of immigration. While many Americans are inaccurately convinced by the rhetoric that immigration poses a severe threat to country and job, the higher level anti-immigrant campaign comes from where hatred and political expediency collide.

The comprehensive immigration reform we need is undercut by this rhetoric and the refusal to recognize that unauthorized immigration is actually a much smaller issue than in previous years. Sure, we can continue with enforcement-only border policy like sending in the drones, but more people are dying in the desert even as the total flow of unauthorized immigration decreases, a human rights crisis that is ill-served by this demonizing rhetoric. We'd be far better off revising our immigration policies and providing a path to legalization for those undocumented immigrants already in the country who answered our "help wanted" sign when we needed their support to grow our economy, while focusing on border policies that target dangerous criminals and stop drug and human traffickers. Because decreasing the flow of immigration isn't our top concern now: that's already happened.

Photo credit: Alessandra Cimatti