"We Can't Possibly Deport Them All"

That's what we've heard, over and over, with respect to the problem of illegal immigrants. John McCain said it, Barack Obama said it, and even George Bush said it.

The implication being that because we can't deport them, we must accommodate them. But it's always been a strawman argument, because it ignores the mobility of immigrants themselves. And today we see a manifestation of that mobility:

The number of illegal immigrants in the country has dropped by as much as 1.3 million in the past year, an 11 percent decline since a historic peak last August, an immigration research group in Washington said in a report released Wednesday.

The report, by Steven A. Camarota and Karen Jensenius of the Center for Immigration Studies, found “strong indications” that stepped-up enforcement by immigration authorities had played a major role in the decline.

The article goes on to argue whether it is the suffering economy or enforcement that has led to the decline, but that's irrelevant. The point is, when the incentives are removed, immigrants move. We've already seen shifts from one state to another as enforcement has increased, and now we're seeing a massive shift from one nation to another.

We've never needed to deport the majority of the illegal population. If the conditions are right, they'll move themselves.

[Cross-posted at Uncommon Misconceptions]