Unauthorized Immigration and Immigration Reform: Present Trends and Prospects

Illegal immigration is, to a large extent, a displacement of labor from poorer to wealthier regions separated by a political border. Until recently, the overwhelming majority of unauthorized immigrants to the United States came from Mexico; thus, the illegal migration problem became, to a large extent, a Mexican problem. ¹ Theories of periphery-to-center labor flows were applied to this movement. The most popular has been, undoubtedly, the push-pull model.