The Census Bureau reports today that the immigrant population declined last year. Two observations:

1. The immigration expansionists are in denial about the reason for this. It’s not just that fewer immigrants are coming but also that there’s been a big increase in the number of people already here, mainly illegal aliens, leaving and going home. The Pew Hispanic Center, for instance, which has produced some good research but which has a clear pro-amnesty, high-immigration bent, rejects any suggestion that illegals can be made to leave. But my colleague Steve Camarota says the decline in the total immigrant population is just too big to be caused by fewer new arrivals plus deaths of existing immigrants (the only way you stop being an immigrant is if you die or leave). What’s more, it’s the number of young, less-educated Hispanic men that’s declining — in other words, illegal immigrants. But the other side can’t accept this because if it’s true it undercuts the rationale for amnesty — if the illegals can actually be made to leave, then why legalize them and let them stay?

2. This drop in the illegal population — caused partly, though not entirely, by the recession — doesn’t mean we need to pray for an economic meltdown to get control over illegal immigration. Rather, it presents us with a chance to catch our breath and put in place the mechanisms to blunt the inevitable increase in pressure for illegal immigration when the economy revives. This is why right now is the time to pass the SAVE Act, for instance, which would phase in E-Verify for all employers; and now is the time to institutionalize federal immigration cooperation with as many state and local law enforcement agencies as possible, and to standardize drivers license issuance, and to expand departure tracking for foreign visitors, etc., etc. The immigration bureaucracy is like Lucy in the chocolate factory, never able to catch up with their work — this is their chance to finally get a handle on their jobs. But only if the White House will let them, of course.

BTW, I’ll be speaking to a Republican women’s group north of Dallas tonight; see here for details.