Illegal immigration and enforcement along the U.S.-Mexico border; an overview

Illegal Mexico-U.S. migration has increased dramatically in recent decades. In this article, Pia Orrenius evaluates the causes of this migration and gives an overview of the enforcement and policy responses to date. Orrenius assesses the effectiveness of border enforcement by looking at developments in the smuggling industry, such a smuggler use rates and fees, as well as changes in border-crossing sites. The findings suggest early attempts at enforcement fueled an increase in the demand of and supply of smugglers, with no rise in prices. Only the most recent enforcement initiatives, most significantly Operations Hold-the-Line and Gatekeeper, have been successful in reversing the thirty-year decline in smugglers' fees and moving migrants to remote crossing points. Risks have risen along with smugglers' fees, as reflected in an increasing number of crossing-related deaths since 1995. Orrenius concludes that Mexican and U.S. policymakers should consider a bilateral labor and migration agreement.Labor supply ; Employment (Economic theory)

Noteworthy: Demographics, natural gas, electric power

The regional economic outlook is quite positive. Broad-based hiring in every sector from energy to construction to services reflects the confidence employers have that the region is poised for sustained expansionDemography ; Energy industries

The minimum wage and Latino workers

Because Latinos comprise a large and growing share of the low-skilled labor force in the U.S., Latinos may be disproportionately affected by minimum wage laws. We compare the effects of minimum wage laws on employment and earnings among Hispanic immigrants and natives compared with non-Hispanic whites and blacks. We focus on adults who have not finished high school and on teenagers, groups likely to earn low wages. Conventional economic theory predicts that higher minimum wages lead to higher hourly earnings among people who are employed but lower employment rates. Data from the Current Population Survey during the period 1994?2005 indicate that there is a significant disemployment effect of higher minimum wages on Latino teenagers, although it is smaller for foreign- than native-born Latinos. Adult Latino immigrants are less affected by minimum wage laws than other low-education natives. We investigate whether skill levels and undocumented status help explain these findings.Minimum wage ; Immigrants ; Hispanic Americans

The impact of illegal immigration and enforcement on border crime rates

Border crime rates lie consistently below the national average. In the 1990s, however, while there as a large decline in property-related crime along the U.S.-Mexico border, violent crime rates began to converge to the national average. At the same time, legal and illegal immigration from Mexico surged and border enforcement rose to unprecedented levels. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between border county crime rates, immigration and enforcement since the early 1990s. We find that while the volume of illegal immigration is not related to changes in property-related crime, there is a significant positive correlation with the incidence of violent crime. This is most likely due to extensive smuggling activity along the border. Border enforcement meanwhile is significantly negatively related to crime rates. The bad news is that the deterrent effect of the border patrol diminishes over this time period, and the net impact of more enforcement on border crime since the late 1990s is zero.Emigration and immigration ; Labor supply ; Crime

Do amnesty programs encourage illegal immigration? Evidence from the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA)

This paper examines whether allowing certain undocumented immigrants to legalize their status leads to additional illegal immigration. The authors focus on the effects of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, which granted amnesty to over three million undocumented immigrants. They find that apprehensions of persons attempting to illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border declined immediately following passage of the law but returned to normal levels during the period when illegal immigrants could file for amnesty and in the years thereafter. The authors’ findings suggest that the amnesty program did not change long-term patterns of illegal immigration from Mexico.Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986

Does immigration affect wages? A look at occupation-level evidence

Previous research has reached mixed conclusions about whether higher levels of immigration reduce the wages of natives. This paper reexamines this question using data from the Current Population Survey and the Immigration and Naturalization Service and focuses on differential effects by skill level. Using occupation as a proxy for skill, the authors find that an increase in the fraction of workers in an occupation group who are foreign born tends to lower the wages of low-skilled natives-particularly after controlling for endogeneity-but does not have a negative effect among skilled natives.Immigrants ; Wages ; Employment (Economic theory)

Self-selection among undocumented immigrants from Mexico

This paper examines the effect of changes in migration determinants on the skill level of undocumented immigrants from Mexico. The authors focus on the effect of changes in economic conditions, migrant networks, and border enforcement on the educational attainment of Mexican-born men who cross the border illegally. Although previous research indicates that illegal aliens from Mexico tend to be unskilled relative to U.S. natives and that economic conditions, networks, and border enforcement affect the size of illegal immigrant flows across the border, the interaction of these variables has not been investigated. Results from hazard models using data from the Mexican Migration Project indicate that improvements in U.S. and Mexican economic conditions are associated with a decline in the average educational levels of undocumented immigrants. Stricter border enforcement is associated with higher average skill levels. Access to a network of previous immigrants appears to lower the cost of migrating but has no differential effect by skill level.Immigrants ; Emigration and immigration ; Labor supply

Mexican migrants stay in border comfort zone

Limited access to migrant networks and strong geographic preferences may underlie border migrants' willingness to settle for lower wages on the border rather than seek higher wages by venturing into the U.S. interior.Immigrants ; Emigration and immigration ; Mexican-American Border Region - Economic conditions ; Wages

The effect of minimum wages on immigrants' employment and earnings

This study examines how minimum wage laws affect the employment and earnings of low-skilled immigrants and natives in the U.S. Minimum wage increases might have larger effects among low-skilled immigrants than among natives because, on average, immigrants earn less than natives due to lower levels of education, limited English skills, and less social capital. Results based on data from the Current Population Survey for the years 1994?2005 do not indicate that minimum wages have adverse employment effects among adult immigrants or natives who did not complete high school. However, low-skilled immigrants may have been discouraged from settling in states that set wage floors substantially above the federal minimum.Immigrants ; Minimum wage ; Human capital ; Education ; Wages ; Employment