Number of illegal immigrants from Mexico to America drops

Mexican Immigrants being rejected to cross the border

For the first time in decades, the illegal immigrant count has dropped significantly as many who already have jobs in America, move back into Mexico. From 7 million immigrants in 2007 to 6.1 million last year. A lot of the immigration drops are due to persistantly weak U.S economy, which has shrunk construction and sevice-sector jobs attractive to Mexican workers, following the housing bust, also violence and more patrols along the border. "The Mexican cartels are taking over, are actually being like the border patrols on this side," Ballesteros said. "They threaten them, `if you don't pay, what we're going to do is we're going to cut your head off.' That's the worst, the worst, the worst part," Ballesteros said. After this apprehension he was sent to a detention center in Las Vegas for 2 and a half months. He fears it may be six months if he's caught again. "You can lose money, but if you lose time there's no way you can recover that time," Ballesteros said