Tough Economy Making Illegal Immigrants Return to Homelands
Created: Tuesday, 06 Jan 2009, 7:32 PM CST
Associated Press/FOX 26 News in Houston
HOUSTON -- From home mortgages to car dealerships, financial slumps have taken hit major areas of the U.S economy. Now it appears one controversial sector is also taking a hit: illegal labor.
Texans may be used to seeing undocumented workers arrested at workplace raids and sent back to their home countries. But now some immigration and customs agents say they're getting some unexpected help.
One agent tells Fox News, "I didn't expect to see this day when undocumented people were returning home to Mexico voluntarily?"
Experts and workers say blame it on the economy.
"Recortaron horas, horas de trabajo," one undocumented worker complained of his employer cutting his hours.
Undocumented workers in the stalled construction business were hit especially hard.
While it's impossible to know how many workers are returning home voluntarily, researchers at the Pew Hispanic Center say the number of illegal immigrants has declined since last year. It's a trend that has immigration attorney, Nahid Wilf, concerned.
"The economy runs with these people," he said. "If you don't have these people to work as hard as they do, what are we going to do?"
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