SMOOTISH:

What's US economy's future? Ask illegal immigrants: The rise and fall of border crossings foretells economic change, researchers say. (Faye Bowers, 5/02/07 The Christian Science Monitor)

For the past decade, Ms. McLaren has been tracking the relationship between border apprehensions and economic growth. Every time apprehensions declined, the economy slowed about 12 months later, she found. "About a year before a recession, or a down cycle, there was a slowdown in the number of arrests" on the border.

Of course, the last big push to bar immigrants was followed by the Great Depression.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 1, 2007 6:09 PM