Immigration from Mexico to the United States — a focus always present in the national political arena — has decreased nearly 60 percent in the last decade, according to the research of Dr. Rogelio Sáenz, dean of UTSA College of Public Policy and Peter T. Flawn, professor of demography.

Examining data from the American Community Survey (ACS) Five-Year Estimates Public Use Files, Sáenz observed that the volume of migration, legal and illegal, has declined. Between 2005 and 2007, 1.9 million migrants immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico. In the following 5 years, only 819,000 migrants entered the U.S. from Mexico.

The researchers attribute the curb in immigration partially to the fluctuation of the American economy.

“In the last 6-7 years we have really seen a decline in Mexican immigration,” said Sáenz. “One of these factors is the worsening U.S. economy, so we know there were so many job loses, particularly in the area of construction that depends heavily on laborers,” Sáenz continued.

Research also points to increases in border security as a catalyst for declines in immigration. Increases in border security along the United States-Mexico border has proportionately affected the price of hiring coyotes — persons paid to assist undocumented persons cross the border.

Economic and political variables have also influenced the demographics of immigrants. According to Sáenz, recent Mexican migrants are of a higher socioeconomic status than the migrants in the past, and “are [some] of the hardest workers in the country, that are trying to improve their lives.”