Legal Immigrants Exceed Illegal Immigrants in U.S.

In an echo of my earlier post below, the Pew Hispanic Center recently issued results of a new survey showing that illegal immigration dropped significantly over the course of the last year. In fact, for the first time in over a decade, the number of people entering the U.S. through legal channels was higher than those entering illegally. 

As a related financial consequence, central banks from Mexico to Brazil are reporting the biggest decline in remittances sent from the United States in more than 10 years. Remittances are the money immigrants in the United States send back to their relatives in their home countries.  The World Bank estimates that remittances worldwide total $300 billion or more per year.