A good editorial about immigration by LA Times writer Gregory Rodriguez:

[elocs]

http://lacrossetribune.com/news/opinion/article_0b1edd14-9af5-11df-adb0-001cc4c002e0.html

With the immigration debate heating up - and a federal court case over Arizona's SB 1070 brewing - you'd think that the U.S. was besieged by growing numbers of illegal immigrants.

But you'd be wrong.

Despite the heightened rhetoric and the bloodcurdling vitriol surrounding the issue, illegal immigration has actually declined significantly over the past few years. While journalists like to characterize the anger over immigration as a response to facts on the ground - i.e. people are inundated and incensed - the numbers don't bear them out.

In fact, the opposite is true. According to a February report by the Department of Homeland Security, the number of illegal immigrants living in the United States actually dropped by a whopping 1 million between 2008 and 2009, which amounts to the sharpest decrease in 30 years. It was the second year of declining numbers.

Likewise, the Border Patrol reports that apprehensions are down by more than 60 percent since 2000, to 550,000 last year, the lowest number in 35 years, even though the border is more tightly controlled than ever. As William Finnegan wrote in last week's New Yorker, "The southern border, far from being ‘unsecured,' is in better shape than it has been for years - better managed and less porous."

More at the link. I'd hate to read some of the comments by the teahadist nutjobs we have here in my city who are confused by the facts and therefore hate them. They are rather big on hate.

[EFerrari]

1. Thank you for posting this.

:kick:

[Xipe Totec]

2. So there's an extra million jobs, freeps, go after them! nt

[customerserviceguy]

3. When you're measuring the difference between 2008 and 2009

Aren't you really measuring the difference between a thriving economy (for most of the year) and a really screwed up one? Of course there were less illegal immigrants working illegally in the US in 2009, but that doesn't mean they weren't clogging the emergency rooms, the schools, and the jails. The cost for local communities still went on unabated.