By Matthew Casey

How angry are Americans about illegal immigration?

Angry enough for private citizens to mobilize, states to pass anti-illegal immigrant legislation, and for opportunist, CNN’s Lou Dobbs, to increase his ratings by consistently reporting one side of the issue.

Here is a better question: Which is a worse problem, our current economic woes, or illegal immigration?

Today’s Top Story, written by Associated Press reporter, Stephen Ohlemacher, covers a Pew Hispanic Center study which says there are a half million less illegal immigrants in the country than there were one year ago.

Ohlemacher writes, “The Pew study does not address why the decrease occurred, but other researchers cite the nation’s struggling economy and stepped up enforcement of immigration laws.”

I believe that the reduction of the number illegal immigrants residing in the United States is the direct result of our badly wounded economy, not increased law enforcement.

As I have repeatedly argued on this blog, illegal immigration is directly tied to macro-economics and the laws of supply and demand. American owners demand cheap (by our standards) labor. Illegal immigrants, unable to make a living in their home country, gladly supply it.

Like it or not, the presence of illegal immigrants is an indicator of the overall health of the economy. More illegal immigrants means the economy is doing well. Less illegal immigrants means it is not.

The current state of the national economy is forcing employers to decrease their demand for cheap labor, thus reducing the ability of this nation to financially support illegal immigrants.

If employers can not even afford to hire dirt-cheap labor, what do you think that does to your prospects of finding a decent paying job upon moving to a new city?

Mortal sins committed on Wall Street are trickling down, not just to business owners, but middle class families who are trying to save for retirement, or send their kids to college.

Remember the good old days when our biggest worry was those day-laborers standing outside of Home Depot at 5 a.m.?

That now seems pale in comparison to the prospect of a new depression.