This past Tuesday an investigative report done by the Colegio de la Frontera Norte (Mexico) and Southern California University Tomas Rivera Institute Policy said that the number of immigrants that crossed the border illegally had increased in 2012.

It is estimated that around 11.7 million of Mexicans live in the United States, and that figure also includes those who are in the country illegally.

This new data was compare with data that has been compiled since 2007, when the U.S. economy suffered a big hit, and also the flow of immigrants that were coming into the country and the amount of money that they were sending back to their homelands was less.

Aside from these new statistics, the number of immigrants that are being deported back to their home countries has been decreasing up to date.

This report is based on data gathered from the Mexican borders, bus stations, airports and immigration offices of the United States.

Anti-immigration laws like the one from Arizona did not achieve its objective; since illegal immigrants from the U.S. did not self deport themselves out of fear.

None of the statics from the border or any other type of indicator, has provided any evidence that these type of anti-immigration laws have had an effect to the number of Mexican illegal immigrants that have left the country, but on the contrary fewer immigrants have left the U.S. since these laws have been in effect.

Rodolfo Garcia Zamorano an expert on this topic who is from the University of Zacatecas, which is also a state in which many illegal immigrants come from, expressed that he was not involved in this investigation, and mentioned that since the big decline of the U.S. economy, more than 1,000 families have returned to Zacatecas voluntarily.

"The only evidence that we have is that the number of illegal immigrants returning back to the U.S. has stabilized, and on the other hand the amount immigrants returning back from the U.S. has increased," said Zamorano.

The only evidence that can exist is the number of immigrants who work in the food and service industries.

"The U.S. is no longer an escape valve for our country, like it has been for the past 50 years", said Zamorano.

There has an increase in an internal migration, by which people move from more rural areas of the country to more industrialized cities in Mexico, and a study called "The Mexican Migration Report" has indicated that "due to the U.S economic conditions which have been in and continues to be in a decline, it is what has determined the flow of the Mexican migration."

This report only comes to show that in regards to this topic there is a lot more room for debate and with the presidential elections now just around the corner, this will be a topic of higher interest.

In April SanDiegoRed shared a report about this topic (link), with information from the PEW Hispanic Center, which talks about the "new type of immigration flow" where the increase in numbers of the Hispanic community was not from illegals crossing the borders, but of the increase of births in American Soil.

Joy.Ruvalcaba@sandiegored.com

Translation : Omar.Martínez@sandiegored.com