Number of Mexicans Crossing Southern US Border Lowest in Decades RT.com
go to original November 20, 2013

Family members reunite through bars and mesh of the U.S.-Mexico border fence at Friendship Park on November 17, 2013 in San Diego, California. (AFP/John Moore)

Even as immigration remains a dominant political issue in Washington, particularly the issue of providing a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, the amount of Mexicans crossing the US border has come to a virtual standstill.

An estimated 12 million people are thought to have entered the US from Mexico over the past four decades, both by legal and illegal methods. Yet according to a recent survey by the Pew Hispanic Center, an arm of the Pew Research Center, the weakened US economy and tougher border enforcement are among the factors that have contributed to the sudden drop.

The downturn began around 2006 just as an immigration crackdown was ramping up and two years before the housing market crash that would push the US economy into a recession. Roughly seven million unauthorized immigrants were living in the US in 2007, but that number decreased by approximately 900,000 four years later, according to the Pew Research Center.

While the downturn is expected to end as the US economy continues to recover, the issue has taken center stage as remittances from Mexicans in the US to their families back home remain historically low. Meanwhile, remittances from the US to other Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America have generally recovered from an approximately two-year low during the recession, with nearly every country except Mexico returning to their pre-2008 numbers.

A Pew report based on data provided by the World Bank indicates that US residents are responsible for 98 percent of the payments sent to Mexico. Many of the industries that were hit hardest by the recession are also the ones that happen to rely on Mexican labor, most notably construction.

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