According to a new report by the Pew Hispanic Center, "fewer people are trying to enter the United States illegally and that the number living here illegally has declined" and "for the first time in nearly a decade, the number of people entering the country illegally was lower than the number arriving through legal channels."

The New York Times story offers up some speculation as to why this may have happened: "Border Patrol officials and groups advocating tougher immigration controls attributed the trend to crackdowns that include record numbers of workplace raids and deportations across the United States."

Other possible reasons are not as comforting, even if you're not a Mexican: "a weakening economy and rising rates of unemployment in the construction and service industries" make the risks inherent to an illegal crossing less acceptable and/or attractive. That kind of suggests that illegal aliens may be the proverbial canaries in the American economic coal mine, no? Something to think about.

What neither Pew nor the experts interviewed by the Times suggested is my favorite possible explanation: the prospect of another Maunder Minimum. As Dave the Swede (not his real name) and Point commenter extraordinaire "labrialumn" can tell you, in the common Little Ice Age, the traffic will be flowing south, baby! As labrialumn put it

We could even be looking at Volkswanderung. I wonder if the Mexican government will have an open border policy *the other way*?

Only if you say por favor. Is it possible that the Mexican government is warning its citizens that it's about to get a lot colder in El Norte? This story says quizás.

In the meantime, there's this possible crisis to worry about.

Comments

[Allen]

Love that!

Don't think that I didn't notice the "make the invisible ... visible" line either. An obvious shout-out to John Calvin.

[labrialumn]

I would hate to see *legal* Mexican immigrants repatriated. And I'd hate to do without TexMex cooking. (Contrary to my fellow upper midwesterners, Cream of Mushroom Soup is not the only spice ;-)

It is the *illegals* I think we should repatriate.

With the current high unemployment (I don't agree with the mainstream economists that a certain percentage of people without jobs, without homes, without the ability to pay their bills or stay alive as somehow being a good thing), I don't think we presently need non-refugee, non-nuclear family immigration.

I just don't want anyone to think I'm against the *legal* immigrants, or any other genuine Americans of part-hispanic-whatever-the-correct-term-is-these-days descent.

I think instead, that we should do all we can to help the peoples in Latin America improve their lot in life.