Fewer Mexicans Attempting to Cross Border into U.S.

Tijuana’s daily Frontera recently reported a 40 percent drop in what the Mexicans call repatriaciones — the process wherein Mexican nationals deported from the U.S. are officially received into Mexico. The paper concluded that the drop is an indication that U.S. employment opportunities for undocumented workers has diminished during 2011.

Through November, approximately 70,000 repatriations had been recorded this year in Tijuana’s city registries; in 2010, 133,000 such cases were registered by year’s end. Thus, it appears that there is a dearth of Mexican nationals willing to illegally cross the border into the U.S. due primarily to a lack of ready employment upon their arrival, opined Antonio Valladolid Rodriguez, a migration official in Tijuana.

Some 7000 of people deported to Tijuana took advantage of a program that allows them free transport to their hometowns. The Mexican states of Mexico, Michoacan, and Jalisco are cited as where the majority of those returning to their places of origin have gone.

Improved job opportunities in Mexico, such as state-sponsored infrastructure projects, were cited as a reason for the decline in the number of Mexicans heading north.