The migration rate from Mexico into the U.S. dropped significantly, based on new research, regardless if individuals are coming legally or illegally.

According to the University of Texas San Antonio and the University of New Hampshire, demographers said the number of immigrants coming from Mexico peaked in 2003, and the migration figures have since fallen by more than half.

Between 2008 and 2012, 819,000 people migrated from Mexico into the U.S., which is a 57-percent drop from 1.9 million between 2003 and 2007. The aforementioned figures are from the U.S. Census Bureau, which did not distinguish between legal and illegal immigration.

According to Rogelio Saenz, dean of the College of Public Policy at UTSA and the study's lead author, the 2007 recession was one of the impacting results for declining migration levels. Saenz said the recession led to fewer construction jobs between 2007 and 2009, which coincided with Mexico's economy growing.

Birth rates also played a factor, as Saenz stated, "Back in the 1960s and 1970s, the average Mexican woman was having about seven births. That created a very youthful population in Mexico, with 35 percent of the population a few decades ago less than 15 years of age."

The study, published by the University of New Hampshire Casey School of Public Policy, found many immigrants are not leaving their native country with the purpose to find jobs but to escape from violence. Saenz acknowledged that these immigrants "are far more likely" to learn English, become better educate and be naturalized U.S. citizens than previous eras of immigration.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), an agency within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, revealed the apprehension of undocumented unaccompanied children at the southern U.S. border declined by 54 percent during the 2015 fiscal year, so far. Between Oct. 1, 2014 and June 30, 2015, the apprehension of unaccompanied immigrant children, younger than 17 years old, fell by 54-percentage points compared to the same time period during the 2014 fiscal year.

The same nine-month period during the 2014 fiscal year saw 57,478 apprehensions, while the current fiscal year has 26,685 apprehensions.

Most of the apprehensions have occurred in Texas Rio Grande Sector with 15,613 apprehensions. In comparison to the 2014 fiscal year, the Rio Grande Sector's apprehension rate declined by 63 percent, from 42,146 apprehensions.

During the last nine months, Mexico has not been responsible for the most unaccompanied immigrant children migration -- that distinction goes to Guatemala with 9,349 encounters with CBP. Mexico ranked second with 8,302 unaccompanied undocumented immigrant children encountered by border protection agents. El Salvador and Guatemala were ranked third and fourth, respectively, among the Latino American countries.

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