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INS Records for 1930s Mexican Repatriations

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INS Records for 1930s Mexican Repatriations

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The article is about the beginning of massive immigration of Mexicans during 1930's and their history and also there are some information about that how they moved back voluntaraly

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Mexicans Migrants on the road with tire trouble (California, 1936).

Photo by Dorothea Lange for the U.S. Farm Security Administration. Courtesy Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC.

Mexican-American family historians and other interested researchers occasionally contact the History Office in search of "Mexican Repatriation" records for individuals who left the U.S. during the Great Depression (1929-1939). Many of these researchers believe that the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) conducted a large-scale federally-controlled Mexican repatriation program during the Depression and thus expect USCIS to hold INS records documenting their ancestor's exit from the U.S.

In most cases, however, no federal record exists for these departures. This is because, while an estimated 400,000 to 1 million Mexicans and Mexican-Americans left the US for Mexico during the Depression, relatively few of them were expelled under formal INS-directed removal proceedings. The majority returned to Mexico by their own decision or through officially voluntary - though often coercive - repatriation programs directed by state and local governments and charitable aid agencies.

INS did increase its deportation efforts during the 1930s and on several occasions the agency co-operated with local governments who sought to remove Mexicans from their jurisdictions. These actions understandably contributed to the current belief that the INS led a massive repatriation program. In reality, INS's role in the removal process was somewhat more complex.

In1930, as the extent of the Depression became more clear some Americans accused Mexicans, as well as other aliens, of holding jobs needed by U.S. citizens. At the same time, local relief agencies began to feel the strain of using decreasing resources to serve an increasingly needy populace. Many agencies felt pressure to exclude foreign-born applicants from receiving aid. Some agencies and local governments began requiring applicants to show proof of legal residence. Others used the threat of federal immigration law, which held that immigrants who became "public charges" could be deported, to discourage them from requesting aid. These conditions likely caused many Mexicans to consider returning to their native country.

Some migrants who chose to return to Mexico received aid from Mexican consuls in the US or ticket money from various aid organizations. Many other Mexicans made their own way to the southern border. In some cases, the threat of federally mandated deportation - often made by local law enforcement agencies - played a role in immigrants' decision to leave the U.S., though the INS never actually instituted removal proceedings.

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Children of Mexican cotton laborers (Casa Grande, Arizona, 1936).

Photo by Dorothea Lange for the U.S. Farm Security Administration. Courtesy Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC.

Voluntary repatriations, in which INS played only an indirect role, account for a portion of the Mexicans who left the U.S. during the Depression. In 1931 the INS reported that the number of Mexicans returning to Mexico had "reached large proportions," but offered no numerical estimate. One historian, however, has concluded that between November, 1929 and December, 1931 about 200,000 Mexicans left the U.S. Today we would not expect to find an INS record for these non-federally mandated departures.

Mexicans who returned home under these circumstances were considered "voluntary" repatriations because though they faced great pressures and sometimes actual threats from local authorities, they returned to Mexico outside of official federal removal proceedings.

While many Mexicans left on their own accord, others were aided or pressured by state and local repatriation programs. By the early1930s local governments began to organize repatriation programs designed to remove Mexicans from their relief rolls. The largest and most well-known of these efforts took place in Los Angeles, but several states and localities launched similar efforts.

In some cases, INS aided local repatriation programs. For the most part, however, the agency instituted federal removal proceedings in only a relatively small number of cases. In Los Angeles County, for example, INS sent federal immigration agents to conduct raids and hold removal hearings. In a number of high profile raids in 1931, the agency arrested 389 deportable aliens, 269 of whom were Mexican.

A more important result of those raids, however, was that the threat of increased federal deportations likely hastened the departure of thousands of Mexicans. In the months following the raids, LA County hired trains and transported thousands of Mexicans to the Mexican border.

For researchers today, it is important to note that only those removals carried-out by the INS (the 389 cases cited above), and perhaps a small number of other investigative cases, would have generated an agency file. The vast majority of migrants who left on LA County's trains likely have no INS deportation record.

Likewise, in 1933 the INS reported that the State of Michigan "sent" 1500 Mexicans to the border accompanied by an Immigration Service escort. Because these migrants were removed under a state-sponsored program it is unlikely that INS deportation files exist for them.

During the Depression, the INS did increase its efforts to deport unlawfully present immigrants. Though the effort was not aimed expressly at Mexicans it affected them more than other nationalities. For example, in 1930 Mexicans accounted for over half of all deportations. In the early 1930s, the INS sought publicity for its federal deportation campaign and received considerable press attention.

Press coverage for the INS's deportation efforts, both positive and negative, ran concurrently with coverage of local repatriation programs. Thus contemporary reports often conflated federal deportations with removals by local programs and/or the scores of Mexicans who returned to Mexico on their own. As a result, newspapers of the era often over-reported deportation totals.

For example, in 1931 The Salt Lake Desert News quoted immigration officials as claiming that in Southern California 70,000 Mexicans had "been deported to their native country...." INS statistics, however, show that in 1930 the agency deported a total of 18,142 aliens, 8,335 of whom were Mexicans. Exaggerated reports like this one have led some researchers to see Mexican repatriation in the 1930s as the result of a single massive program, rather than a combination of several factors.

In all, during the peak years of the repatriation campaigns (1929-1935), the INS formally removed approximately 82,000 Mexicans. These removals were accomplished through both deportation and voluntary departure proceedings (formal voluntary departure proceedings provided an alternative method of removal that allowed aliens subject to deportation to leave at their own expense, saving the government the cost of detention and deportation hearings while allowing the alien the possibility of future legal re-entry). Therefore, depending on which estimate you accept, INS removals accounted for roughly between 8 to 20% of all Mexicans who returned to Mexico during the first 6 years of the Depression. For that reason the majority of researchers seeking "INS repatriation records" from the Great Depression will not find them.

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INS Records for 1930s Mexican Repatriations

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(click image to enlarge) Mexicans Migrants on the road with tire trouble (California, 1936). Photo by Dorothea Lange for the U.S. Farm Security Administration. Courtesy Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC. Mexican-American family historians and other interested researchers occasionally contact the History Office in search of "Mexican Repatriation" records for individuals who left the U.S.

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Mexican immigrants voluntarily leaving the US.

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Mexican immigrants voluntarily leaving the US.

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The article about the Mexican immigrants is talking about the research and will help me to prove that they are going volunteraly.

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WASHINGTON - Most of the Mexican immigrants who leave the United States to return to their home country do so on their own terms, not as a result of deportation, according to a survey released Tuesday by the group, Mexicans and Americans Thinking Together.

Between 2005 and 2010, a record 1.4 million immigrants returned to Mexico from the United States.

Pew Hispanic Center data from April 2012 shows this was roughly double the number of Mexican migrants who left the United States during the previous five-year period. Pew estimated that between 5 percent and 35 percent of those returning were forced to leave the United States but "firm data on this phenomenon are sketchy."

The Mexican-American group, an organization that focuses on cultural and economic issues between the U.S. and Mexico, carried out its study in May and June of last year. The group interviewed 600 migrants who had returned to the Mexican state of Jalisco, located along the Pacific coast of Mexico. All of them had spent at least one year in the U.S. - and approximately three-fourths of those surveyed had entered the United States illegally.

The margin of error for the data collected is estimated to be about 5 percent. The Mexican-American organization's research, "The U.S. Mexico Cycle: The End of an Era," is the first attempt to explain why increasing numbers of immigrants are choosing to return to Mexico independently, a fact that may surprise many Americans, said MATT Executive Director Aracely Garcia-Granados.

"While many in the United States may believe that most Mexican migrants are forced to return to Mexico, the study showed that a full 89 percent chose to go home completely on their own. Only 11 percent reported deportation as a reason. When we saw this data, the 89 percent seemed very high," she said.

The most common motivations the immigrants gave for leaving the United States centered on their families. For example, many simply missed their relatives while others felt compelled to go back to care for aging parents. In other cases, people went home to be with a family member who had been deported, said Garcia-Granados. During the interviews, many migrants also cited their nostalgia for Mexican culture and the difficulty of finding jobs in the United States as primary reasons for returning home.

Less than 2 percent of those surveyed mentioned anti-immigrant sentiments in the U.S. as a reason for leaving, which may be reflective of changing attitudes toward immigration.

"It's extraordinary to see how the atmosphere in Washington and increasingly around the United States is changing on the question of immigration reform, maybe it's not moving fast enough for many of us, but ... there's a focus now on ways in which there can be cooperation between different parties on the topic of immigration," said Duncan Wood, director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

The trend of reverse migration and the "cross-culturalization" associated with the movement of people across the border has had an impact Mexican society, according to Eduardo Medina Mora, the Mexican Ambassador to the United States. "When they go back [to Mexico], they carry the skills they learn, the abilities to actually do something different, a much more entrepreneurial sense of life," he said in remarks at the event. "So immigration is a good thing."

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Mexican immigrants voluntarily leaving the U.S., new study says

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WASHINGTON - Most of the Mexican immigrants who leave the United States to return to their home country do so on their own terms, not as a result of deportation, according to a survey released Tuesday by the group, Mexicans and Americans Thinking Together.

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What Immigrants say about life in the US

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What Immigrants say about life in the US

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This article i have found from Migration Policy Institutes official web-site. The article give good evidence for my research because it is written that after research 85% of immigrants says that life in America is hard. This is really good for me because from real research of immigrants I can make and argument

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The values and sentiments of immigrants - whether they are Latin American, East Asian, Caribbean, or European - mirror those of native-born Americans, according to new research carried out by the nonprofit, nonpartisan research group Public Agenda.

The New York-based group conducted a comprehensive study of 1,002 randomly selected immigrants to the United States. Some of the key findings from the study, entitled "Now That I'm Here: What America's Immigrants Have to Say About Life in the U.S. Today," are reported below.
Learning English Called Essential

"Now That I'm Here" is based on a national telephone survey of 1,002 foreign-born adults aged 18 or older who came to live in the U.S. when they were at least five years old. The survey was offered in English and Spanish. The margin of error is plus or minus three percentage points. The sample is drawn from two sources: 830 respondents were randomly selected from a targeted sample representing 81 percent of foreign-born households in the U.S.; 172 respondents were drawn from pre-screened samples from previously conducted Public Agenda surveys.

The survey was preceded by seven focus groups conducted in sites across the country, including New York City, Los Angeles, Miami, Sioux Falls, SD, and Alexandria, VA. In addition, 13 in-depth interviews were conducted with immigration experts in academia, public policy, law, and community outreach.

One of the most surprising findings from the research is how insistent immigrants are that learning English is critical for their success. Focus group discussions made it clear that this conviction is driven by pragmatism and the desire to be understood. Fully 85 percent say it is hard to get a good job or do well in this country without learning English; only 12 percent say it is easy. Some immigrants also see learning English as an ethical obligation. Nearly two in three (65 percent) say "the U.S. should expect all immigrants who do not speak English to learn it," versus 31 percent who say this should be left to each individual to decide.

These attitudes carry over to how immigrants want the nation's public schools to educate children who do not speak English. By a substantial 63 percent to 32 percent margin respondents believe that "all public school classes should be taught in English" rather than that "children of immigrants should be able to take some courses in their native language." Mexican immigrants, as a group, also believe it is important to learn English but they feel less urgency: a bare 51 percent majority thinks that all public school classes should be taught in English.

Immigrants' self-reported experiences with learning English are particularly revealing. Only 37 percent of immigrants say they already had a good command of English when they came to the United States. Among Mexican immigrants the number drops to seven percent; among Caribbean immigrants it goes up to 58 percent. Of immigrants who knew only enough English to get by or did not speak it at all upon arrival, 29 percent now speak mostly English at home and another 31 percent speak English and their native language about equally. Almost half (47 percent) have taken classes to improve their language skills. And 49 percent of those who came with limited or no English proficiency say they can now read a newspaper or book in English very well.
Strong Work Ethic
Immigrants show deep commitment to the work ethic, once again reflecting a historically prized American value. A large majority (73 percent) think it is "extremely important" for immigrants "to work and stay off welfare." In focus groups, many talked about the stark reality that greeted them when they first came to the United States - and the understanding that, without hard work, their dream of America as the land of plenty would not come true. In the survey, eight in 10 (81 percent) say, "a person has to work very hard in this country to make it - nobody gives you anything for free." Twenty-two percent say that qualifying for government programs like Medicaid or food stamps is or was a major reason for them to become a citizen.

In light of these attitudes toward work, it is not surprising that most of the survey respondents work and that few rely on public aid. Almost seven in 10 (69 percent) immigrants were working full time, part time, or were self-employed at the time of the survey. Only 18 percent report that they or their families had received food stamps. Fewer (10 percent) say they had received donations or free services from a charity or church. In contrast, more than three in four (76 percent) have volunteered their time or contributed money to a community organization or church. Only four percent report health insurance coverage through Medicaid; 60 percent have private health insurance, nine percent are covered through Medicare. Twenty-two percent reported having no medical insurance.
Making the U.S. Home
Immigrants display an appreciation of the U.S. and a commitment to making it their home, but they also maintain a strong connection to their country of origin. Not surprisingly, many immigrants stay in touch with folks back home: 59 percent regularly phone family abroad and another 44 percent send money at least once in a while. Respondents split 47 percent to 52 percent between those who closely follow current events in their country of origin and those who do not.

But immigrants' desire to stay connected with people and events "back home" does not contradict a desire to stay in their new home. In fact, 74 percent say they plan to stay in the U.S. and only 18 percent say they will move. Fully eight in 10 (80 percent) say they would still come to the U.S. if they were making the choice all over again. Sympathetic attachment to the U.S. is strong: 80 percent say the U.S. is a "unique country that stands for something special in the world," versus 16 percent who say it is "just another country that is no better or worse than any other." The overwhelming majority (70 percent) of parents who have children under 18 say it is unlikely that their children would want to live in their country of origin. Finally, about one in four (26 percent) say they or a member of their family has served on active duty in the U.S. armed forces.

The national origins of immigrants to America are changing in step with both world events and evolving U.S. policies. But regardless of their countries of birth, they end up with a shared understanding - and appreciation - of what it means to be an American. This can only bode well for policymakers struggling to smoothly integrate immigrants into American society.
Note: The full study, funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York and co-authored by Ann Duffett and Jean Johnson, reports immigrants' perceptions of politics, discrimination, the Immigration and Naturalization Service and immigration as well as other topics and is available online at www.publicagenda.org. The attitudes of immigrant subgroups - Mexican, non-Mexican Latino, European, East Asian and Caribbean - are broken out in the report.

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What Immigrants Say About Life in the United States

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The values and sentiments of immigrants - whether they are Latin American, East Asian, Caribbean, or European - mirror those of native-born Americans, according to new research carried out by the nonprofit, nonpartisan research group Public Agenda. The New York-based group conducted a comprehensive study of 1,002 randomly selected immigrants to the United States.

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An article that retrieved from Pew Research Center, Hispanic trends it is a source with graphs that are shown in understandable scales will be useful for my research to see the picture of Mexican Immigrants to US.

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Pew Research Center's Hispanic Trends Project

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Mexican-Origin Hispanics in the United States

A record 33.7 million Hispanics of Mexican origin resided in the United States in 2012, according to an analysis of Census Bureau data by Pew Research Center. This estimate includes 11.4 million immigrants born in Mexico and 22.3 million born in the U.S. who self-identified as Hispanics of Mexican origin.

Mexicans are by far the largest Hispanic-origin population in the U.S., accounting for nearly two-thirds (64%) of the U.S. Hispanic population in 2012. Hispanics of Mexican origin are also a significant portion of the U.S. population, accounting for 11% overall.

The size of the Mexican-origin population in the U.S. has risen dramatically over the past four decades as a result of one of the largest mass migrations in modern history. In 1970, fewer than 1 million Mexican immigrants lived in the U.S. By 2000, that number had grown to 9.8 million, and by 2007 it reached a peak of 12.5 million ( Pew Hispanic Center, 2011). Since then, the Mexican-born population has declined as the arrival of new Mexican immigrants has slowed significantly ( Passel et al., 2012). Today, 35% of Hispanics of Mexican origin were born in Mexico. And while the remaining two-thirds (65%) were born in the U.S., half (52%) of them have at least one immigrant parent.

Prior to the 1980s, most of the growth in the nation's Mexican-origin population came from Hispanics of Mexican origin born in the U.S. However, since the 1980s-a decade after the current wave of Mexican migration took off-and up until 2000, more growth in the Mexican-origin population in the U.S. could be attributed to the arrival of Mexican immigrants. In the decade from 2000 to 2010, that pattern reversed-births surpassed immigration as the main driver of the dynamic growth in the U.S. Mexican-origin population ( Pew Hispanic Center, 2011).

Mexican immigration has also played a large role in shaping the nation's immigrant population. Today, 11.4 million Mexican immigrants live in the U.S., making them the single largest country of origin group by far among the nation's 40 million immigrants. The next largest foreign-born population, from greater China at 2 million, is less than one-fifth the size of the Mexican-born population in the U.S.

In addition, Mexican migration has shaped the nation's unauthorized immigrant population. More than half (55%) of the 11.1 million immigrants who are in the country illegally are from Mexico.

Among Mexican immigrants, half (51%) are in the U.S. illegally while about a third are legal permanent residents (32%) and 16% are naturalized U.S. citizens. Overall, naturalization rates among Mexican immigrants who are in the country legally are just half that of legal immigrants from all other countries combined ( Gonzalez-Barrera et al., 2013).

Internationally, the U.S. is far and away the top destination for immigrants from Mexico. Fully 96% 0f Mexicans who leave Mexico migrate to the U.S. ( Connor et al., 2012) Worldwide, 9% of people born in Mexico live in the U.S. In addition, the U.S. has more immigrants from Mexico alone than any other country has immigrants.

Mexican Immigrants Today and Two Decades Ago

The characteristics of Mexican immigrants have changed over the decades. Compared with 1990, Mexican immigrants in 2011 were less likely to be male (53% vs. 55%), considerably older (median age of 38 vs. 29), better educated (41% with high school or more vs. 25%), and have been in the U.S. for longer (71% had been in the U.S. for more than 10 years, compared with 50%).

On economic measures, Mexican immigrants have mixed results. Although median personal earnings increased by about $2,000 during the last two decades, the median household income of Mexican immigrants suffered a drop of more than $4,500. This reflects the effects of the recent economic recession that drove up unemployment rates in the nation, particularly among Mexican immigrants.

This demographic portrait compares the demographic, income and economic characteristics of the foreign-born and native-born Mexican-origin populations with the characteristics of all Hispanics in the U.S. It is based on tabulations from the 2011 American Community Survey by the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center. Key findings include:

Immigration status. Almost two-thirds of Mexicans in the U.S. are native born (65%). About two-thirds of immigrants from Mexico (65%) arrived in the U.S. in 1990 or later.

Language. Two-thirds (66%) of Mexican-origin Hispanics ages 5 and older speak English proficiently. The remaining 34% report speaking English less than very well, equal to the share among all Hispanics. About nine-in-ten (89%) native-born Mexicans ages 5 and older speak English proficiently. This compares to about one-in-three (29%) among Mexican immigrants.

Age. Mexican-origin Hispanics are younger than both the U.S. population and Hispanics overall. The median age of Mexicans is 25; the median ages of the U.S. population and all Hispanics are 37 and 27, respectively. U.S.-born Mexicans are considerably younger than their foreign-born counterparts. The median age of native-born Mexicans is 17, compared with 38 of the foreign born.

Marital status. Among those ages 15 and older, Mexican immigrants are more likely than native-born Mexicans to be married-58% vs. 34% respectively. As a group, Mexican-origin Hispanics ages 15 and older are slightly more likely (45%) to be married than Hispanics overall (43%).

Fertility. Almost one-in-ten (8%) Mexican women ages 15 to 44 gave birth in the 12 months prior to this survey. That was the same as the rate for all Hispanic women-8%-and slightly higher than the overall rate for U.S. women-6%. More than four-in-ten (45%) Mexican women ages 15 to 44 who gave birth in the 12 months prior to the survey were unmarried. That was similar to the rate for all Hispanic women-47%-and greater than the overall rate for U.S. women-38%.

Regional dispersion. More than half (52%) of Mexican-origin Hispanics live in the West, mostly in California (36%), and another 35% live in the South, mostly in Texas (26%). There is no significant difference in the regional dispersion of Mexicans by nativity.

Educational attainment. Mexicans have lower levels of education than the Hispanic population overall. Some 10% of Mexicans ages 25 and older-compared with 13% of all U.S. Hispanics-have obtained at least a bachelor's degree. Mexicans born in the U.S. are almost three times more likely to have earned a bachelor's degree than those born in Mexico-15% vs. 6% respectively. About six-in-ten Mexican immigrants have not earned a high school diploma (59%), compared with 21% of Mexicans born in the U.S.

Income. The median annual personal earnings for Hispanics of Mexican origin ages 16 and older was $20,000 in the year prior to the survey, the same as for U.S. Hispanics overall. U.S.-born Mexicans had higher earnings than their immigrant counterparts-a median of $22,000 vs. $19,000 respectively.

Poverty status. The share of Mexicans who live in poverty, 27%, is slightly higher than the rate for Hispanics overall (25%). U.S.-born Mexicans are slightly less likely to live in poverty than their foreign-born counterparts-26% vs. 29% respectively.

Health insurance. One-third of Mexicans (33%) do not have health insurance, compared with 30% of all Hispanics. More than half (57%) of Mexican immigrants are uninsured, compared with 20% of those born in the U.S.

Homeownership. The rate of homeownership (49%) among Mexican-origin Hispanics is higher than the rate for all Hispanics (46%). The rate of homeownership among U.S.-born Mexicans (53%) is higher than that of Mexican immigrants (45%).

About this Report

This report examines the Hispanic population of Mexican origin in the United States by its nativity. Several data sources were used to compile the statistics shown in this report. The data for the demographic portrait tables are derived from the 2011 American Community Survey (1% IPUMS), which provides detailed geographic, demographic and economic characteristics for each group. Historical trends for the Mexican-origin and Mexican foreign-born population are based on the U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey (CPS) March Annual Social and Economic Supplement conducted for 1995 to 2012 and U.S. censuses from 1850 to 2010. Estimates of the unauthorized population are based on augmented data from the March supplement of the CPS.

This report was written by Ana Gonzalez-Barrera, research associate, and Mark Hugo Lopez, associate director. Paul Taylor provided comments and editorial guidance. Jeffrey Passel provided guidance on the report's statistical analysis. Anna Brown number-checked the report. Molly Rohal was the copy editor.

A Note on Terminology

The terms "Latino" and "Hispanic" are used interchangeably in this report.

"Native born" refers to persons who are U.S. citizens at birth, including those born in the United States, Puerto Rico or other U.S. territories and those born abroad to parents at least one of whom was a U.S. citizen.

"Foreign born" refers to persons born outside of the United States, Puerto Rico or other U.S. territories to parents neither of whom was a U.S. citizen.

The following terms are used to describe immigrants and their status in the U.S. In some cases, they differ from official government definitions because of limitations in the available survey data.

"Legal permanent resident," "legal permanent resident alien," "legal immigrant" and "authorized migrant" refer to a citizen of another country who has been granted a visa that allows work and permanent residence in the U.S. For the analyses in this report, legal permanent residents include persons admitted as refugees or granted asylum.

"Naturalized citizen" refers to a legal permanent resident who has fulfilled the length of stay and other requirements to become a U.S. citizen and who has taken the oath of citizenship.

"Unauthorized migrant" refers to a citizen of another country who lives in the U.S. without a currently valid visa.

"Eligible immigrant" in this report, refers to a legal permanent resident who meets the length of stay qualifications to file a petition to become a citizen but has not yet naturalized.

"Legal temporary migrant" refers to a citizen of another country who has been granted a temporary visa that may or may not allow work and temporary residence in the U.S.

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A Demographic Portrait of Mexican-Origin Hispanics in the United States

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A record 33.7 million Hispanics of Mexican origin resided in the United States in 2012, according to an analysis of Census Bureau data by Pew Research Center. This estimate includes 11.4 million immigrants born in Mexico and 22.3 million born in the U.S. who self-identified as Hispanics of Mexican origin.

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The article on theguardians.com about Mexican immigrants, talks about how seismic shifts in immigration and demographics who once would have dreamed of the US. This article is good because I can understand Mexicans wishes and dreams and why they started to go back to their own country.

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In a typical year, the young men in this agricultural region of western Mexico would have made the journey north to America. But not this year or for this generation: a better future across the border is a promise they no longer trust.

"For years, we dreamed of America, but now that dream is no good," says 18-year-old Pedro Morales, sitting in the elegant Spanish colonial square of Comala under the shadow of the spectacular Volcan de Fuego. "There are no jobs and too many problems. We don't want to go."

In an historic shift, the tide of immigration from Mexico to the US has stalled. Villages that were empty of young men are now full. A report published by the Pew Hispanic Center this week confirmed what was already anecdotally clear: the largest wave of immigration in US history has stalled and is now close to slipping into reverse.

Between 2005 and 2010, 1.4 million Mexicans immigrated to the United States, less than half the number that migrated between 1995 and 2000. At the same time, the number of Mexicans who moved to Mexico over the same period rose to 1.4 million, double the number over the previous five years.

Other research groups in the field say the narrowing gap in wages and relative costs of living between Mexico and the US, as well as improving education standards in Mexico, has tipped the calculation back.

"The great migration of the past five decades has been slowing for a decade," says Doug Massey, founder of the Mexican Migration Project at Princeton University. "We've been at a point of stasis since 2009."

On the US side, election year tough-on-immigration rhetoric has obscured the subtleties of the US-Mexico relationship.

But in Mexico, increased border controls on the US side, as well as controversial anti-immigrant legislation passed in states like Alabama and Arizona, are only overt signals that the US may have entered a period of sustained hostility toward its southern, economically vital neighbour.

Potential migrants say the border is not itself a dissuading factor, but racial discrimination and hostility, efforts to deny employment, education and healthcare are, as is increased exposure to arrest and deportation.

"The reason they're coming home is because they have no options, no papers, and the laws are more aggressive," says Fernando Morett, a shopkeeper in the coastal town of Chiutlan. "It's complicated, and people are debating it. If they don't have friends in the US and they have to pay to cross the line, it's not worth it."

For Mexicans already in the US, the decision to return is still fraught with uncertainty. "But at least here they have the option of food and shelter, and they suffer less than in the US," says Morett.

The turnaround is striking. While studies that show migrant workers are net economic contributors and form the bedrock of construction, farming and catering during boom years, there is evidence the crackdown is creating a new underclass.

"It's a huge drag on social and economic mobility in the country if you've got no rights whatsoever," says Massey. Economic improvement in Mexico and across Latin America, coupled with declining fertility rates (from an average of seven children in 1960 to just over two now) suggests the region may soon no longer have a surplus workforce.

Further, the hardened US attitudes toward foreigners is keenly felt. Cesar Castellano, a taxi driver waiting for a fare in Comala, describes how his brother worked eight years at the same California restaurant.

"One morning the police came and searched everyone. He had no papers so they took him to the border at Tijuana. They wouldn't let him see his family or collect his things. The restaurant gave him nothing. Now he's working in construction here."

The choice to stay home appears to have little to with the ongoing militarisation of the long US-Mexico border that started in the mid-1980s. The border now costs $3.5bn annually in fence construction and technology that includes drones and motion sensors. Critics say it's an effective local employment boon - the number of border agents has tripled in recent years - but little more: the measures do not in themselves dissuade migrants.

Expansive new detention cells at typical border crossing are reported virtually empty. "We will always get over we want to," says one of the young men in Colama. "If there were better opportunities in the US, we would go."

David Fitzgerald, an immigration expert at the University of California San Diego, believes that 95% of those who attempt the crossing succeed. He believes border controls have inadvertently contributed to the ferocity of the cartel wars on the Mexican side - an insurgency that has killed 50,000 over the past four years.

The mom-and-pop "coyote" operations that once ran migrants across the border have been pushed out replaced by sophisticated operations that pay dues to the cartels for crossing their territory. Costs of a cross-border transport have risen $2,500, a ten-fold increase in a decade.

"More agents has led to more coyotes, and it's a more lucrative and complex business," says Fitzgerald. "The gangs are not directly involved in people-smuggling, but they're paid for the rights to cross their territory. Along the Gulf Coast, the Zetas have been preying on Central American migrants."

But in Mexico's rural towns, young men watch reports on TV of the violence in Ciudad Juarez and Monterrey and share anecdotes of migrants going missing with only their luggage ever turning up or of being Tasered by border control on the US side.

At Jalisco, traditionally one of the main sending states, the effects of border issues are keenly felt. Families are split when parents who lack papers are separated from their US-born children. Instead of being repatriated, apprehended migrants are subjected to periods of detention; penalties for overstaying on migrant worker visas have increased with longer periods of disbarment. Temporary work visas, while more plentiful, are also expensive to apply for.

With remaining migrants struggling for employment in the US, they're less likely to be able to raise the steep fees to bring friends and family over. In Jalisco, that lack of opportunity has also given gangs opportunity for Mafia-style loan sharking and protection rackets tied to the state's rival gangs, Los Nueva Generacion and pseudo-religious Knights Templar, which recently proclaimed it would stop the violence for the duration of the pope's visit.

"The guys want money but they can't go to America to make it. So then they lend it or demand money for protection, and that causes more problems," says Castellano. "Perhaps it would be better everyone if they just opened the border."

But in the current political and economic environment, he admits, that's unlikely.
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Young men in Mexico say the US no longer offers them a better future

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In a typical year, the young men in this agricultural region of western Mexico would have made the journey north to America. But not this year or for this generation: a better future across the border is a promise they no longer trust.

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The history of whole immigration starting from 17th century, to US, will help me to think more deeply and understand why people are in interest of coming to US. A TDC original documentary explaining the history of immigration to America, from the "Natives" who first populated the land, through the Mexican migrants who come in large numbers today, It is current video, that was published in 2014.

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The Immigration History of the United States

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The video that i founded on YouTube, "Broken Lives of Immigrants deported from US to Mexico" it is a video that will help to obviously see what is going with immigrants and why they want to immigrate to the US. In this video they provided some places and showed people's life after deporting from America and it will help me to make good arguments. its current video that was published in 2014

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Broken lives of immigrants deported from US to Mexico - BBC News

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The article on guardians news website, about Mexican immigrants falls in last decades. This article is about the immigrants and it gives some details in numbers about illegal worker that coming from Mexico and also information about deported immigrants that were in the United States. This article is useful because the information is mentioned basically from where I can turn my research on specific questions.

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The net flow of Mexicans into the US has dwindled to a trickle and may now be in reverse, giving the lie to right-wing warnings of an "invasion" of illegal immigrants and bringing to an end four decades of inward migration.

A survey from the Pew Hispanic Center finds that the largest wave of immigration in American history to have taken place from a single country has now been brought to a virtual standstill. In the five years from 2005 to 2010, about 1.4m Mexicans immigrated to the US - exactly the same number of Mexican immigrants and their US-born children who quit America and moved back or were deported to Mexico.

By contrast, in the previous five years to 2000 some 3m Mexicans came to the US and fewer than 700,000 left it.

The latest figures signify the end of an era. From 1970, the Mexican-born population of the US has risen steeply, reaching a peak of more than 12m in 2010.

Now it is falling, with the decline including undocumented Mexican immigrants living in the US who now number about 6.1m - 58% of the total unauthorised immigrant population of the country.

In an election year in which immigration policy has provided a sharp divide between the presidential candidates, evidence that illegal Mexican immigration has dried out is of immeasurable significance. Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee, has backed hardline anti-illegal immigration clampdowns introduced by states around the country, promising to make them federal policy should he win the presidency.

President Obama, on the other hand, has said he supports the "Dream Act" that would provide a path to citizenship to law abiding Hispanic college students, though he has failed to put that into effect. He has also stepped up deportations of Mexicans who have infringed the law, with about 300,000 illegal immigrants deported back to Mexico in 2010 alone.

The new statistics take the wind out of the sails of those who have targeted illegal Mexican immigrants for taking jobs away from unemployed Americans - the Pew study suggests that the flow of immigrants has decreased largely because under the economic downturn incoming Mexican immigrants can no longer find work.

"As the US economy continues to struggle, people no longer want to come here to work," said Ali Noorani, head of the non-partisan group National Immigration Forum.

The Pew study also points to a dramatic reduction in the number of Mexicans apprehended as they try to cross the border. More than 1m were picked up by US immigration officers in 2005 - now that number has plummeted by more than 70% to 286,000 last year.

Whit Ayres, a Republican political strategist, said the evidence of a large decline in illegal border traffic was helpful. "Before you can move forward with any serious immigration reform you need to give Americans confidence that the border is secure," he said.

While the poor state of the economy explains much of the dip in numbers, so too does the rash of harsh anti-illegal immigration laws introduced in several states including Arizona, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. The new statistics suggest that the tough laws - that attempt to make life so uncomfortable for undocumented immigrants that they leave the country, a policy known as "attrition through enforcement" - are to some extent working.

On Wednesday the US supreme court will hear oral presentations on SB 1070, Arizona's landmark immigration bill from 2010, that has spawned a spate of copy-cat legislation in other states. The court will have to decide whether key provisions in the law, including a clause that would force local police officers to check the immigrant status of anyone they come across whom they suspect of being undocumented, should be allowed to go ahead or barred because they undermine federal control of immigration policy.

Noorani said that the Pew figures underlined the urgency of finding a solution to America's immigration conundrum. "When the US economy bounces back we will need a supply of immigrant labour and at that point we are going to need a functioning immigration system - which is something that at the moment we sorely lack."
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Mexican immigration falls for first time in four decades

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The net flow of Mexicans into the US has dwindled to a trickle and may now be in reverse, giving the lie to right-wing warnings of an "invasion" of illegal immigrants and bringing to an end four decades of inward migration.

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I have found on GMU library search a film, I will use it as an background source in order to understand why Mexican immigrants are comming to US.  Filmmaker Roy Germano provides a perspective on undocumented immigration rarely witnessed by American eyes, challenging audiences to imagine more creative and effective solutions to the problem."

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Available at George Mason University Johnson Center DVD (JV7401 .O83 2010 ) (GetIt)