Is NAFTA responsible for US immigration woes?

But the conclusions in the body of the article are based on the table, which are based on apprehension rates.

I still question whether there really has been a significant change from pre-existing trends since NAFTA. I haven’t seen anything convincing to that effect.

Looking through the table at http://giannini.ucop.edu/Mex_USMigration.pdf, there is a note that states it’s based on apprehensions. The problem is, that we can’t use apprehensions as a good proxy for increased imigration, when we know we have dramatically stepped up enforcement.

If you put more cops on the streets, they’ll catch more crimes. But that doesn’t mean more crimes are being committed.

Border security now is no worse than it was in 1991, yet there wasn’t nearly as much illegal immigration then as now. So that really doesn’t answer the question.

Well I wasn’t getting my info from the table, but from the body of the article. It’s clearly talking about the level of overall illegal immigration to the US, not how many people were apprehended by the cops or border patrol.

There’s a lot of other data out there indicating that levels of illegal immigration have gone up dramatically since 1994. It’s not really a question of whether it’s gone up, but why. I’m just wondering if it’s coincidence that it’s been since NAFTA, or if that’s partly the cause.

No, laws against immigration are responsible for immigration woes. I’d be interested in statistics backing up the claim that the rate of illegal immigration has accelerated since NAFTA. Arrests might have increased, but that doesn’t mean illegal immigration has increased. The US has been pouring massive amounts of money into enforcement since 9/11, so of course arrests are going to go up.

close the borders, god! I don’t want more immigrants into this state…they are ruining it.

yeh aggree 0pen b0rders!!

“I’d be interested in statistics backing up the claim that the rate of illegal immigration has accelerated since NAFTA.”

http://giannini.ucop.edu/Mex_USMigration.pdf

To quote: The estimated number of unauthorized Mexicans in the United States rose from 2.5 million in 1995 to 4.5 million in 2000, and then to 11 million in 2005, when the 36 million foreign-born US residents included 30 percent who were unauthorized.

Fair enough. The stats in the body of the article don’t refer to arrests, but I guess we’ll have to “agree to disagree” on this one. I really do think that NAFTA has caused the immigration boom. The reasoning is that NAFTA has forced Mexican agribusiness to compete more directly with the US, whose agricultural industries are heavily subsidized and also much more productive. This has resulted in a bottoming out of Mexican agribusiness and an influx of migrant workers to the US, many of whom are poor Mexican farmers seeking employment.