I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Undocumented immigration is slowing, but the heightened focus on immigration enforcement has engendered widespread worry among the adult Hispanic population in the U.S., according to the Pew Hispanic Center in two reports released during the past month.
One report released by the Pew Center this week shows the arc of the 40 percent growth of the undocumented immigrant population since 2000, from 8.4 million to 11.9 million today. The growth rate was significant in the early years of the decade, but then started slowing in 2005:
Although the undocumented population has been rising, its net growth has slowed substantially since 2005, compared with earlier in the decade.
From 2000 to early 2005, the unauthorized immigrant population grew by an annual net average of about 525,000, increasing to 11.1 million from 8.4 million…
Since 2005, the growth patterns have changed substantially. From 2005 to 2008, annual growth has averaged only 275,000 as the undocumented population grew from 11.1 million to 11.9 million… with a substantially smaller number arriving since 2007.
The Pew report tells us that during the period of 1998-2004, the inflow of undocumented immigrants exceeded the arrival of authorized immigrants. During the period of 2005-08 this reversed, with more authorized immigrants:
From 2005 to 2008, about 1.6 million new undocumented immigrants arrived (an average of 500,000 a year), compared with 2.1 million legal permanent residents (an average of 650,000 a year). Examination of the annual estimates points to 2007 as the year the turnaround occurred.
While the report doesn’t give reasons for the slow-down in undocumented immigration, the report does speculate.
Possible reasons are lower U.S. economic growth while the economies of Mexico and other Latin American nations have remained stable, or a heightened focus on enforcement of immigration laws.
On this latter point, the report states that the Center’s 2008 National Survey of Latinos indicates enforcement measures have “generated worry among Hispanics.”
For that survey, the Pew Center talked to 2,015 adult Hispanic adults. Half of them said the condition of Hispanics in the United States today is worse than last year. Other findings:
Nearly one in 10 Hispanic adults — native-born U.S. citizens (8 percent) and immigrants (10 percent) alike — report that in the past year the police or other authorities have stopped them and asked about their immigration status.
One in seven (15 percent) say they have had trouble in the past year finding or keeping a job because they are Latino. Ten percent report the same about finding or keeping housing.
On immigration enforcement:
More than four in five Hispanics (81 percent) say that immigration enforcement should be left mainly to the federal authorities rather than the local police;
76 percent disapprove of workplace raids;
73 percent disapprove of the criminal prosecution of undocumented immigrants who are working without authorization;
70 percent disapprove of the criminal prosecution of employers who hire undocumented immigrants.
A narrow majority (53 percent) disapprove of a requirement that employers check a federal database to verify the legal immigration status of all prospective hires.
And regarding deportation:
Some 40 percent say they worry a lot and an additional 17 percent say they worry some that they themselves, a family member or a close friend may be deported. This is up slightly from 2007, when 53 percent of adult Latinos said that they worried a lot or some about deportation (Pew Hispanic Center 2007).
