More than a million illegal immigrants have fled the country, mostly because increased immigration enforcement has discouraged them from trying to put down roots in the United States, according to a study released Wednesday by the Center for Immigration Studies.
The Washington-based group has been pushing for stronger immigration law enforcement for years.
The study concludes that the illegal- immigrant population in the U.S. dropped by 1.3 million, 11 percent, from August 2007 to May 2008. That leaves 11.2 million illegal immigrants in the country, according to the study.
Study co-author Steven Camarota said he believes most of the drop is from illegal immigrants fleeing enforcement rather than losing their jobs because the drop in their numbers started before the unemployment rate began to rise. The drop in the number of illegal immigrants is already greater than what occurred in the last recession, he said.
“It does seem that enforcement is working. What seems undeniably true is illegals respond to changing incentives, and some significant share have left the country,” he said. “It seems to contradict the argument that illegals are permanently attached to the United States and their lives here and there’s no way to change that.”
His report predicts that if this trend were sustained, the illegal-immigrant population could be cut in half in five years.
U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Republican from Littleton, made enforcement of immigration laws central to his presidential campaign before he dropped out.
Tancredo was unavailable to comment Wednesday evening, but his spokesman, T.Q. Houlton, said the findings were no surprise.
“The numbers are absolutely dropping, and it’s because of enforcement,” he said. “The raids (targeting illegal immigrants) seem to be working, and we’re building a fence on the border to strengthen security. It’s definitely positive news. It shows we’re making progress, but there’s still a lot of work to do.”
Supporters of the immigrants lambasted the study and said that only a slowing economy, not enforcement, would encourage illegal immigrants to go home.
“I think their methodology is flawed, and I think they’re overlooking ‘It’s the economy, stupid,’ ” said Angela Kelley, director of the Immigration Policy Center, a pro-immigrant policy and research organization in Washington.
She said the study’s mention of the unemployment rate ignores the drop in construction and restaurant jobs that hit illegal workers hard.
Kelley also pointed to a University of California at San Diego study showing that illegal immigrants fear crossing the harsh desert climate in the border area more than they fear law enforcement.
Denver Post staff writer Joey Bunch contributed to this report.
