Border security affecting migration
LOS ANGELES - Undocumented immigrants from Mexico are staying longer and are more likely to bring their families to the United States as a result of stepped-up border security, experts said at a conference on immigration and homeland security Thursday.
"They are staying in the U.S. longer because we've succeeded in making it too costly and dangerous to cross back," Wayne Cornelius, director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California, San Diego, told the audience of federal and local officials, immigration attorneys and community activists.
The conference, hosted by the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute, began with a minute of silence in honor of farmworker activist Cesar Chavez's birthday Thursday.
Cornelius, who recently completed a study of potential migrants in towns in the Mexican states of Zacatecas and Jalisco, said the increased security appears to be doing little to deter these immigrants.
The amount of time undocumented Mexican immigrants stayed in the United States on a typical trip increased somewhat between 1993, when the Clinton administration began tightening the border, and 2000, according to recent studies by the Mexican government.
Overall, the number of weeks the migrants stayed in this country climbed from an average of 40 weeks to 50 weeks. The reasons for their departures varied.
That number, however, jumped from 50 weeks to an average of 70 weeks between 2000 and 2002.
Meanwhile, nearly half of Mexicans living in the country illegally today are women and children, a far cry from days when a male relative would come to the United States and send money to his family back home, Cornelius said.
"We always want to think about these people as labor, but these people are often family people and their families do come," said Harry Pachon, director of the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute.
For his study, Cornelius interviewed about 600 potential migrants. While nearly 90 percent called crossing the border "very dangerous," only 20 percent cited tougher border enforcement as a reason they didn't plan to make the trip this year.
If they were deterred, it was indirectly due to border patrols. The cost of crossing shot up from $1,500 in 2001 to an average of $2,500 in 2003, Cornelius said.
Tighter borders in California and Texas have also channeled migration to Arizona and New Mexico, with harsh desert climates making crossing more dangerous and forcing more immigrants to rely on smugglers.
In his survey, Cornelius found that 84 percent who crossed recently had used smugglers, whereas in a 1989 study he found that less than half relied on them. Despite the increased security, more than half said they were able to get into the United States on their first or second try.
Speakers in the conference called on Congress and President Bush to reach an agreement on immigration that would combine a guest-worker program with some kind of an amnesty.
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/border/68393.php
LOS ANGELES - Undocumented immigrants from Mexico are staying longer and are more likely to bring their families to the United States as a result of stepped-up border security, experts said at a conference on immigration and homeland security Thursday.
"They are staying in the U.S. longer because we've succeeded in making it too costly and dangerous to cross back," Wayne Cornelius, director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California, San Diego, told the audience of federal and local officials, immigration attorneys and community activists.
The conference, hosted by the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute, began with a minute of silence in honor of farmworker activist Cesar Chavez's birthday Thursday.
Cornelius, who recently completed a study of potential migrants in towns in the Mexican states of Zacatecas and Jalisco, said the increased security appears to be doing little to deter these immigrants.
The amount of time undocumented Mexican immigrants stayed in the United States on a typical trip increased somewhat between 1993, when the Clinton administration began tightening the border, and 2000, according to recent studies by the Mexican government.
Overall, the number of weeks the migrants stayed in this country climbed from an average of 40 weeks to 50 weeks. The reasons for their departures varied.
That number, however, jumped from 50 weeks to an average of 70 weeks between 2000 and 2002.
Meanwhile, nearly half of Mexicans living in the country illegally today are women and children, a far cry from days when a male relative would come to the United States and send money to his family back home, Cornelius said.
"We always want to think about these people as labor, but these people are often family people and their families do come," said Harry Pachon, director of the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute.
For his study, Cornelius interviewed about 600 potential migrants. While nearly 90 percent called crossing the border "very dangerous," only 20 percent cited tougher border enforcement as a reason they didn't plan to make the trip this year.
If they were deterred, it was indirectly due to border patrols. The cost of crossing shot up from $1,500 in 2001 to an average of $2,500 in 2003, Cornelius said.
Tighter borders in California and Texas have also channeled migration to Arizona and New Mexico, with harsh desert climates making crossing more dangerous and forcing more immigrants to rely on smugglers.
In his survey, Cornelius found that 84 percent who crossed recently had used smugglers, whereas in a 1989 study he found that less than half relied on them. Despite the increased security, more than half said they were able to get into the United States on their first or second try.
Speakers in the conference called on Congress and President Bush to reach an agreement on immigration that would combine a guest-worker program with some kind of an amnesty.
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/border/68393.php