The Census Bureau reports a dramatic slowdown in the number of immigrants coming to the United States last year, says an AP article:
The nation added about a half million immigrants in 2007, down from more than 1.8 million the year before, according to estimates being released Tuesday by the Census Bureau.
It goes on to say that the U.S. has added an average of about a million immigrants a year since 1990, legal and illegal. It doesn’t say if the number of immigrants tracked with the strength of the economy during those years. I don’t recall hearing of such an effect, just that the number has been rising in recent years. The drop is far more dramatic than the slowdown in the economy, which wasn’t much in 2007. So I conclude that it was indeed the enforcement of immigration laws that has caused most of the drop.
I’ll bet it was also the strong message sent with the defeat of the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill in mid-2007, when grassroots Americans overcame the efforts of elitists of both parties to give amnesty to illegal aliens and otherwise encourage more immigration.
But no matter how slow the economy, you can be sure that the refugee agencies and their friends in Congress will keep the refugees coming.