Mexicans Miss Money From Up North

The New York Times runs a sympathetic story about how difficult it is for families of illegal aliens in the U.S., stating the amount of money being sent back to Mexico has dropped off dramatically this year. The overall tone of this article makes my fingernails curl backward in disgust, but there is some good news to be found.

The Times reports:

From 2000 to 2006, remittances grew to nearly $24 billion a year from $6.6 billion, rising more than 20 percent some years. In 2007, the increase so far has been less than 2 percent.

[T]he events of the last year in the United States, political and economic, have also clouded the prospects of many illegal Mexican workers. New walls, new guards and new equipment at the border have dissuaded many from trying to cross and raised the cost for those who try to as much as $2,800. Workplace raids and stories of summary deportations stoke fears among Mexicans on both sides of the border.

Sounds like progress to me! The Times blathers on about a series of poor Mexican families that are struggling to make ends meet because America has the sheer gall to enforce its own borders, laws, and sovereignty. For most of them, crossing the border is a regular occurrence:

Estrella Rivera’s brother Francisco left for the first time when he was 16. Now 21, he recently came home after a year and a half in Orlando, Fla., working in construction. He earned enough to add a floor to his parents’ house, but then he struggled.

"Either there was no work or they did not want to hire somebody without papers," he said, perched on an old Ford pickup truck with Michigan tags beside his family’s sheep and cow pens.

Although it angers me that the NYT runs such a disgustingly anti-America pro-illegal alien story, it doesn't surprise me at all. The good news is that the American people have apparently made some headway in forcing the government to crack down.

It's about time!

There's my two cents.