Good immigration news......for a change

Probably for a variety of reasons, and I'm sure to reader David's delight, the bleak immigration picture is starting to turn around......

DALLAS — Illegal immigrants are returning home to Mexico in numbers not seen for decades — and the Mexican government may have to deal with a crush on its social services and lower wages once the immigrants arrive.

"Those numbers have increased percentage-wise tremendously," said Enrique Hubbard, the Mexican consul general in Dallas. "In fact, it's almost 100 percent more this year than it was the previous two years."

The illegal immigrant population in the U.S. has dropped 11 percent since August of last year, according to the Center for Immigration Studies. Its research shows 1.3 million illegal immigrants have returned to their home countries.

"There's no question there's a variety of suggestions that people are in fact returning," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies. "Remittances, which is the money immigrants send home to Mexico, have gone down dramatically over the past year. Again, probably part the economy, but also part enforcement, leading to fewer people being here."

Mexican President Felipe Calderon plans to help returning nationals by providing food, medical care and temporary shelter if needed. But reports are already out in Mexico that the large number of illegal immigrants returning home could drive down wages and put pressure on social services — the same concerns many Americans have with illegals living and working in the U.S.

Unemployable vagrants, hostile gang-bangers, drains on social services, hundreds of thousands unassimilated and uneducated, depressed wages......welcome to America Felipe! I'd like to think it would force Mexico to reform their government and get rid of the stifling, rampant corruption but, when everybody in power including the police are totally corrupt, how do you instigate reform? The short answer is you don't. When our economy rebounds and we stop paying attention, like we always do, Mexico's poor will flood back across the unguarded border like they always have, with Calderon's assistance. And we'll ignore it like we always have, until it's too late to do anything about.

According to my title, this was supposed to be a good-news post but, I'm far too cynical to believe that it'll end up the way we'd like it to.