At least according to
Pravda The Washington Post. They have an article about how (*sniff sniff*) less money is finding it's way to Mexico (*sob sob*) from criminal border crossers (excuse me while I get a hankie). Those poor people. What a shame that the money they steal from our economy (which they probably don't even pay taxes on), then send to
another country, is slowing down considerably:
A new national survey of Latino immigrants suggests that recently adopted state and local laws aimed at making life more difficult for illegal immigrants have slowed the growth in the flow of money sent to relatives in Mexico.
Experts who follow the money transfers, also known as familial remittances, have been confounded over why growth in the totals has leveled off in the first half of the year despite continued growth in the Mexican immigrant population. The Inter-American Development Bank sponsored a recent survey of 900 immigrants by Bendixen & Associates, a Miami firm that specializes in multi-cultural polling, to try to explain the change.
In the first six months of the year, Mexican immigrants sent $11.4 BILLION [emphasis mine] to their native country, according to estimates by the Central Bank of Mexico. That is about the same amount sent last year, a significant slowdown given that remittances have grown more than 10 percent a year for the past decade, reflecting population growth, said Donald F. Terry, manager of the Inter-American Development Bank's Multilateral Investment Fund.
Even the New York Slimes (motto: "We heart terrorists!!") is jumping on the boo-hoo bandwagon
with this report:
Bank officials, pointing to a survey of Mexican immigrants in the report, said the decline reflected a rising sense of insecurity and uncertainty about whether they would stay in the United States. Anticipating a possible move back to Mexico, these immigrants appear to be saving more.
“They have decided because of the uncertainty of the future that they need to step back and save a bit,” said Donald F. Terry, general manager of the Multilateral Investment Fund at the bank.
Mr. Terry said the slowdown would affect about 500,000 Mexican homes. “For those families in Mexico, there is going to be economic and social dislocation,” he said.
But that's somehow our fault. It wouldn't have anything to do with the Mexican government. Nah, can't be. Oh, and notice how they throw this little sympathy-getter in at the end:
Remittances to Mexico have become vital to the economics of the country’s poorest regions, bank officials said. The money pays for drinking-water systems, roads, care for older people and other needs in villages and working-class neighborhoods.
Maybe they can borrow a few pesos
from this guy.
