Free Republic

With the passage of the tough new anti-illegal immigration act in Arizona, some illegal Mexican immigrants have begun to return to Mexico without waiting for it to go into effect.

SANTA ANA, Calif. — A pilot program allowing illegal immigrants to surrender to authorities to avoid jail and have more control over their deportation has been dubbed a failure. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says it is ending its "Scheduled Departure" program when the three-week trial concludes Friday. Only eight people participated in the program, officials said. "Quite frankly, I think this proves the only method that works is enforcement," Jim Hayes, acting director of ICE's detention and removal operations, told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Memo to, shall we call them, Enforcement-Deniers: Enforcement is causing massive self-deportation. And the authors suggest that if the trends they identify are sustained, "it would cut the illegal population in half within just five years." Half gone in 5 years. Nice.

For the first time, Mexican officials in Arizona admit there is hard evidence illegal immigrants are preparing to leave the state because a new employer sanctions law is making it difficult, if not impossible, for them to keep a job. Illegal immigrants are flooding the Mexican consulate in Phoenix for documents that will allow them to return to Mexico to enroll their children in school, the consul to Arizona, Carlos Flores Vizcarra, told FOX News. They are also requesting a document called "menaje de casa," which allows illegal immigrant families living in the U.S. to cross into Mexico without paying...

Illegal immigrants are coming into Texas, but not from where one might think. The rush is coming from Oklahoma, Arizona and other states, places that have recently passed tough new anti-illegal immigrant laws. The two toughest measures are in Oklahoma and Arizona. The Oklahoma statute, which took effect in November, makes it a crime to transport, harbor or hire illegal immigrants. Effective Jan. 1, the Arizona law suspends the business license of employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers. On a second offense, the license is revoked. Anecdotal information seems to indicate that illegal immigrants are leaving these states in growing...

A delegation of politicians from Sonora, Mexico, will travel to Mexico City next week seeking help to house and feed workers fleeing Arizona because of the new employer-sanctions law. "We're going to demand resources," said Irma Villalobos, a state legislator who heads the commission of border affairs in Sonora. Over the past week, in meetings in Arizona, politicians from Sonora have received reports of workers "self-deporting" and landing in border communities. The full effect of the voter-approved law, which requires Arizona employers to verify a worker's eligibility to be in the United States, is unknown for Mexican lawmakers along the...

FRAMINGHAM - Francisco Neto left Brazil for Marlborough in 1995, lured by his version of the American dream: the possibility of steady pay and an exchange rate that would triple the money he would send back home to struggling relatives. But after almost 12 years, he plans to return home to the central Brazilian city of Goinia, joining thousands of Brazilians who no longer see the advantage of living here. The decline in the dollar has cut in half the value of the $700 Neto sends home each month: Five years ago, it was worth 2,450 Brazilian real; today only...

Oklahoma's local law against illegal immigration is among the toughest in the nation. The law went into effect Nov. 1, and advocates for undocumented workers and activists for tougher immigration measures both say that since then, thousands of immigrants have left Oklahoma. Among other things, the new law makes it a felony to harbor, transport or aid an illegal immigrant. Hispanic leaders say the law is causing widespread fear in the Hispanic community. Builders say they can't get enough workers and are threatening a lawsuit to try to block the law. But backers of the measure say it's doing what...

MEXICO CITY - Lorenzo Martinez, an illegal immigrant who has lived in Los Angeles for six years, has a message for his kin in Mexico's Hidalgo state: Stay put. The steady construction work that allowed him to send home as much as $1,000 a month in recent years has disappeared. The 36-year-old father of four said desperation is growing among the day laborers with whom he competes for odd jobs. Sporadic employment isn't the half of it. Martinez said anxiety is also running high among undocumented workers about stepped-up workplace raids, deportations and increasing demands by U.S. employers for proof...

Anxiety is rising among local undocumented immigrants who fear they could lose their cars and mobile homes. Some fears may be unfounded. It comes as Indiana's Bureau of Motor Vehicles checks its driver's license and state ID card records with a Social Security database. In November, the bureau sent letters to 206,000 residents whose records didn't match -- a mix of races and situations that included native-born citizens and undocumented immigrants. If the mismatches aren't resolved by Jan. 31, licenses and ID cards will be revoked. And since Nov. 7, the BMV has been checking Social Security records before issuing...

Power Line hits us to a Reuters report that says illegal immigrants are going back to Mexico. A] growing number of illegal immigrants across the United States … are starting to pack their bags and move on as a crackdown on undocumented immigrants widens and the U.S. economy slows, turning a traditional Christmas trek home into a one-way trip. *** There is no tally of the number of illegal immigrants who have already left the United States, many of whom simply head south over the border with their belongings packed into a car during the annual Christmas exodus, or board...

U.S. illegal immigrants 'self deport' as woes mount Sun Dec 23, 2007 7:22pm EST By Tim Gaynor PHOENIX (Reuters) - Mexican illegal immigrant Lindi sat down with her husband Marco Antonio in the weeks before Christmas to decide when to go back to Mexico. She has spent three years working as a hairdresser in and around Phoenix, but now she figures it is time to go back to her hometown of Aguascalientes in central Mexico. "The situation has got so tough that there don't seem to be many options left for us," Lindi, who asked for her last name not...

Yesterday's Arizona Republic reported on an interesting phenomenon taking place as a new workplace identification law approaches implementation. Those workers with no documentation -- in other words, illegal aliens -- have begun to sell off their property and leave the state: Undocumented immigrants are starting to leave Arizona because of the new employer-sanctions law. The state's strong economy has been a magnet for illegal immigrants for years. But a growing number are pulling up stakes out of fear they will be jobless come Jan. 1, when the law takes effect. The departures are drawing cheers from immigration hard-liners and alarm...

Tens of thousands of Hispanics have left the Tulsa area. And, a law designed to crack down on illegal immigration hasn't even taken effect yet. But, there's a catch. East Tulsa is where the majority of Hispanics ended up settling. They came by the thousands and now they're leaving that way, too. And, it's all because of one word -- deportation. Business owner Simon Navarro came to America for a better life. And, he found one on Tulsa's east side. But, a tough new state law has much of Tulsa's immigrant population fleeing for fear of deportation. "Two months ago...

Raid rattles workers and life along Hwy. 60 The sweep last week shook immigrants here illegally and legally. As many residents leave, towns and schools feel the effects. By Chao Xiong and Richard Meryhew, Star Tribune staff writers WINDOM, MINN. -- Any other Thursday, the aisles of the Rincon Latino grocery here would be full of customers. But last week, in the aftermath of an immigration raid in nearby Worthington, store owner Maria Amaya could only throw up her hands in despair. Business was bad. Real bad. By midafternoon she had made only two sales. One was to a husband...

Debate rages, and will through 2004, about President Bush’s “not an Amnesty” Amnesty proposal to legalize the 8 to 12 million Illegal Aliens his Administration has said are currently here in our country. Amnesty proponents and enablers uniformly offer only three solutions to the Illegal Alien problem. 1. Coexistence: Just maintain the status quo through inaction. 2. Amnesty: This is appeasement, and surrender. 3. Xenophobia: Build a police state. That’s a pretty thin list, and as we’ll see, not an accurate one. Its exclusive presentation amounts to a fallacy of False Dilemma. It should be noted that Amnesty is a...