Border Patrol: Fewer Illegal Crossings

(CBS)  The U.S. Border patrol today reported a dramatic decrease in the number of people caught trying to cross the border from Mexico illegally. Back in 2000, 1.6 million arrests were made. This year, the number is down to 705,000, the lowest level since the mid 1970s. The government is crediting toughter immigration enforcement, but others say it's the economy. CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker reports.

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The Border Patrol says it's now catching about 2,000 illegal border crossers every day, down from more than 4,000 a day eight years ago, reports CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker. The government says that's a barometer indicating that fewer people are trying to sneak across the border.

"We've seen a collapse in the number of people who come across the border illegally," says Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

Border Patrol attributes the sharp decline in the number of nabbed border jumpers to several factors:

The border fence: About 550 miles have now been completed.

More Border Patrol agents: 6,000 new agents have been assigned since 2006.

Tougher workplace Enforcement: In 2002, just 485 undocumented workers were arrested on the job. A nationwide crackdown this year nabbed 5,184 immigrants working in the U.S. illegally.

"We've actually seen record low levels we haven't realized in over 30 years and we think that's been achieved through the combination of tactical, the increase of border patrol agents, as well as the technology we've employed along the border with Mexico," says Jay Ahern of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Border observers say beefed up security is a factor, but the number one reason fewer immigrants are sneaking across the border is the sharply weaker U.S. economy, Whitaker reports. It's no longer worth the $3,000 and more they pay to get smuggled into the country.

"Most of the people coming over the border illegally are looking for jobs and there aren't any," says Roberto Suro at the University of Southern California.

"Home construction was a huge magnet for several years and that has dried up. The hospitality industry is not hiring and food processing is in decline."

Many border observers predict the numbers will follow past trends, meaning that when the economy improves, they expect the number of illegal crossings to rise again.

[sfcmac2]

Oh, thank god. If border security is improving to the point where less and less of these illegal felons traipse across the border, that''s great.
We need to secure it with a WALL, a trench, guard towers, sub machine guns, mines, and thousands more border agents. Let the Army Corps of Engineers search for and blow up every tunnel they find.
What has been happening in the last few decades is not immigration, but INVASION. Along with the so-called %u201Chard working%u201D illegals, we have involuntarily absorbed some of Central and South America%u2019s worst dredges of humanity. Rapists, pedophiles, thieves, murderers, MS-13 gangs and other assorted felons have embedded themselves into the country to continue their crime sprees at our expense.

Title 8 of the US Code should have been enforced years ago. Better late than never.

You want to get in? Do it legally. Otherwise, STAY HOME.

[perk235]

Employers of illegals can pay them low wages and not pay payroll taxes to the state or the federal government. It''s outsourcing on American soil. Control illegals by controlling the employers.

[mdalerwill]

First, I''m not a supporter of amnesty for illegal immigrants. I don''t believe in granting them drivers licenses or giving them benefits from social programs. When I married a Brit and moved back here, we spent an awful long time jumping through hoops to make everything legal.

That being said, I also live in a heavy ag area. Be upset all you want about illegals taking construction jobs, but how many American citizens are going to get out in the 100+ degree heat with no shade and prune vines and harvest crops? Do any of you really think today''s youth is going to turn off their reality tv show or unplug their ipod and get out and sweat in the fields?

We need a program that brings farm laborers over legally, tracks them, and perhaps provides them with transportation back to the border when the harvests are finished. We could, perhaps, simplify or shorten the process in following years for workers who can demonstrate that they are in fact complying with the program and returning to Mexico at the end of the season.

[you_fools]

Just say NO when Illegals ask for employment!!!!

And change the laws so illegals are not allowed all the benefits they currently reap..

That is the way to fight Illegals.. Take away their jobs and they will not keep coming..

[antoniof123]

so if Obama gives us construction jobs for new highways, the illegals are taking those jobs? it seems like they get free reign in the construction biz, that isn''''t fair. I hope Obama''''s administration doesn''''t do what the Republicans did according to Governator Arnold, turn a purpose blind eye to illegals because they think cheap labor is so great, it isn''''t great, it is stealing jobs.
Posted by geena5 at 09:48 AM : Dec 30, 2008

Obama is going to do what FDR did put people to work building infastructure. But unlike the conservatives who will want big business to run it I beleive his plan calls for the government to run and to oversee it so businesses will not get free run to pay as little as possible and charge the tax payers as much as possible.

[spiritwalk]

Bush has figured out how to stop our illegal immigration problem. He''''s made Mexico more attractive than the US to the working class. Soon, American-born, white construction workers will be talking about Mexico as the promised land.
Posted by downtowner97
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You probably are not too far off the mark. There has already begun an exodus of lower end internet techs going to India because there is no need for their skill levels in the US. It would not be going too far to think that someone in Mexico who was seeking to be upwardly mobile would see more opportunity in Venezuela with a common language and a growing economy language than in a bankrupt California where opportunity comes from hanging out in front of Home Depot hoping for a day job.

[guest173]

so if Obama gives us construction jobs for new highways, the illegals are taking those jobs? it seems like they get free reign in the construction biz, that isn''t fair. I hope Obama''s administration doesn''t do what the Republicans did according to Governator Arnold, turn a purpose blind eye to illegals because they think cheap labor is so great, it isn''t great, it is stealing jobs.

[lordsuntzu]

Fewer and fewer want to come here because they know that when the depression hits, they will be the first victims.

When it comes, it will be bloody. So much hatred in this land. The US when it begins dissolving about ethnic and social lines is going to make Yugoslavia look like a cakewalk.

Posted by Evian_Ycnan at 06:17 AM : Dec 30, 2008
+ report abuse

*******

well I am sure the liberals made good in helping mexico and mexicans..

OH WAIT..MEXICO IS NOW A SHI*THOLE WITH MASSIVE DRUG PROBLEMS

the new africa..............

lets have a concert to save it

[evian_ycnan]

Fewer and fewer want to come here because they know that when the depression hits, they will be the first victims.

When it comes, it will be bloody. So much hatred in this land. The US when it begins dissolving about ethnic and social lines is going to make Yugoslavia look like a cakewalk.

[longtree-2009]

ilegal aliens come from many nations not just mexico. they even cross the 90 miles of ocean from cuba but cubans are automatically accepted if they make it to dry land. american citizens hire them for cheap wages from businesses to residences. now that the economy has tanked, american citizens aren''t hiring illegal aliens that much but they will once the economy turns around.