Harsh Economic Realities in the US Force Many Mexican Immigrants to Self-Deport Jim Avila - ABC News
go to original May 14, 2013

After desperately and dangerously crossing the border for work in the U.S., many Mexican immigrants now find the land from which they fled holds more opportunity and economic promise. (ABC)

The cobblestone streets of El Cargadero, Mexico, are eerily empty. The houses in this small northern Mexican town are bolted shut, the windows boarded, their residents living and working across the border in the United States.

"I would say that two thirds of the people from here, they reside in Southern California," Joaquin Fernandez, an El Cargadero resident who lives in California most of the year, told ABC News.

But that is changing. After desperately and dangerously crossing the border for work in the U.S., many Mexican immigrants now find the land from which they fled holds more opportunity and economic promise.

"When the economy in the U.S. started going down, it was hard, especially my work," Erika Felix said. "It was just so much stress and my parents tell me, 'Why don't you come back and continue education here?' So I did."

Self-deportation is a trend not often mentioned in the debate over immigration reform. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, since 2005 migration between the U.S. and Mexico has been net zero. Roughly 1.4 million Mexicans came into and out of the United States during that time.

Read the rest at ABC News

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