…on the flow of undocumented immigrants from Mexico…

An article in the Los Angeles Times reports a notable decrease in the flow of illegal aliens across our southern border:

The undocumented hesitate to enter a less-alluring U.S.

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 had allowed him to send home as much as $1,000 a month in recent years had disappeared. The 36-year-old father of four said desperation was growing among the day laborers with whom he was competing for odd jobs.

Sporadic employment isn’t the half of it. Martinez said anxiety also was running high among undocumented workers about stepped-up workplace raids, deportations and increasing demands by U.S. employers for proof that they were in the country legally….

…and on the positions and prospects of the presidential candidates…

ABC news analyzed the campaign efforts of John McCain:

McCain Still Dogged by Immigration Issue

….For many Americans, especially conservative Republicans, immigration is one of their most important concerns and a key determinant of whom they’ll vote for in the primaries.

For many of those same voters, McCain — co-sponsor of the immigration bill that died in Congress earlier this year — is on the wrong side of the issue….

These days, when questions about immigration are asked, McCain says he “got the message.”…

He hasn’t exactly renounced the bill he championed in the spring, but he has fine-tuned his position and changed the emphasis….

A recently revised report (Dec. 19, 2007) by the Pew Hispanic Center provides facts and figures reflecting the changing public attitude:

As Illegal Immigration Issue Heats Up, Hispanics Feel a Chill

Hispanics in the United States are feeling a range of negative effects from the increased public attention and stepped up enforcement measures that have accompanied the growing national debate over illegal immigration.

Just over half of all Hispanic adults in the U.S. worry that they, a family member or a close friend could be deported, a new nationwide survey of Latinos by the Pew Hispanic Center has found. Nearly two-thirds say the failure of Congress to enact an immigration reform bill has made life more difficult for all Latinos. Smaller numbers (ranging from about one-in-eight to one-in-four) say the heightened attention to immigration issues has had a specific negative effect on them personally. These effects include more difficulty finding work or housing; less likelihood of using government services or traveling abroad; and more likelihood of being asked to produce documents to prove their immigration status….

Some data points:

• US border arrests are down 20% over last year
• The growth rate of the U.S. Mexican-born population has dropped from 8% last year to 4.2% this year
• Growth in employment of foreign-born Hispanics in the bellweather construction industry dropped from 19.8% last year to 10.9% early this year
• A few years ago the money sent back to Mexico was growing at 20% per year. The increase this year over last year was a mere 1.3%. (However, through October this year Mexicans living abroad sent $20.4 billion home to their families, still a big drain of US resources.)

…so we are making our voices heard, but there is still work to do…

Late on December 17 Congress passed a spending bill that gutted the funds for the border fence. And former Border Patrol agents Ramos and Compean are still in prison.

Finally, we are fully into the holiday season but I do not want it to pass without pausing for a moment to thank you for your support and to wish you a wonderful holiday surrounded by people most important to you.

Gayle Kesselman, a physician, is co-chairperson of the New Jersey Citizens for Immigration Control.