Apprehensions of Mexican migrants at U.S. borders reach near-historic low
Excerpt Pew Research Center:
The number of Mexican migrants apprehended at U.S. borders in fiscal 2015 dropped to the lowest levels in nearly 50 years, according to U.S. Border Patrol data. This change comes after a period in which net migration of Mexicans to the U.S. had fallen to lows not seen since the 1940s.
This decline in apprehensions coincides with recently released estimates by Mexico’s top statistical agency, which show that the rate at which Mexicans migrated to the U.S. and other countries – including both legal and unauthorized immigrants – has held steady for the past five years, after a dramatic drop during the Great Recession.
Apprehensions of Mexican migrants declined to near-historic lows last fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, 2015, according to data released earlier in the year by the U.S. Border Patrol. (U.S. border apprehension data are commonly used as an indicator of the flows of migrants entering the U.S. illegally, though they are only a partial measure.) In fiscal 2015, the Border Patrol made 188,122 apprehensions of Mexican migrants at U.S. borders, an 18% decline from the previous year – and the lowest number of apprehensions on record since 1969, when there were 159,376 apprehensions. The decline suggests unauthorized immigration flows from Mexico could be falling.
In addition to the latest trends in apprehensions, new data from the Mexican government’s main statistical agency (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía, or INEGI) show that the level of emigration of Mexicans from their country to the U.S. and other countries remains well below levels prior to the Great Recession that began in 2007. In 2015, the emigration rate to other countries was 39 per 10,000 Mexican residents during the second quarter of the year, little changed since 2011 and down substantially from 144 per 10,000 during the same quarter in 2006.