LA Times Staff Uses ‘Fuzzy Math’ When it Comes to Illegal Immigration

An article in last week’s LA Times noted that Mexican immigrants living in the U.S. sent an estimated 8 percent more money back to relatives last year compared with 2010, thanks to the improving U.S. job market. A truly mind boggling statement given the state of the U.S. economy and job market over the past three years.

About halfway down the article, the writer also notes the following:

“More stringent border enforcement, workplace raids and deportations by federal authorities have also affected remittances. Nearly 800,000 illegal immigrants were deported in the last two fiscal years, many of them from Mexico, according to data from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Migration from Mexico to the U.S. is at a virtual standstill partly because of these tough measures and continued high unemployment in the U.S., Mexican census figures suggest.”

How can this paragraph be justified? If “migration” has ceased, why are remittances on the upswing? If people are going back home and huge numbers being “deported,” how can remittances have increased from the previous year? These questions deserve answers.

Finally, the writer notes right from the start that remittances are up because of the improving U.S. Job market, but later in the article writes that illegal crossings are down because of the continued high unemployment rate in the U.S. Well, which is it? I am not really sure what planet Ricardo Lopez is living on. The U.S. unemployment rate has been getting worse since 2007, not improving when you factor in people who have just given up and dropped out of the labor market entirely.