The Pew Hispanic Center has released a report on Mexican Immigration to the US. Citing from the report:

The flow of immigrants from Mexico to the United States has declined sharply since mid-decade, but there is no evidence of an increase during this period in the number of Mexican-born migrants returning home from the U.S., according to a new analysis by the Pew Hispanic Center of government data from both countries.

The Mexican-born population in the U.S., which had been growing earlier in the decade, was 11.5 million in early 2009. That figure is not significantly different from the 11.6 million Mexican immigrants in 2008 or the 11.2 million in 2007.

The current recession has had a harsh impact on employment of Latino immigrants, raising the question of whether an increased number of Mexican-born residents are choosing to return home. This new Hispanic Center analysis finds no support for that hypothesis in government data from the United States or Mexico.

Mexico is by far the leading country of origin for U.S. immigrants, accounting for a third (32%) of all foreign-born residents and two-thirds (66%) of Hispanic immigrants. The U.S. is the destination for nearly all people who leave Mexico, and about one-in-ten people born there currently lives in the U.S.

The entire report can be viewed by clicking here.

Non-English speakers who have to deal with Wisconsin’s legal system still aren’t getting the services they need when they go to court, according to the director of the state’s court interpreter program, as reported by Gil Halsted of Wisconsin Public Radio.

Carmel Capati heads the office in charge of translation services in state courts. He says they could use the help, especially with certain refugee populations. Those include 70 refugees from Myanmar who have arrived in the state this year, and an increase in the number of both Somali and Iranian refugees over the past two years.

Federal money to hire more interpreters could get congressional approval this year. Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisconsin) has just re-introduced a bill he’s been pushing for years to send more money to the states to train and hire court interpreters. If it passes this year, it could mean $100,000 to add interpreters in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin currently has 65 certified court interpreters. 59 of them speak Spanish. The others include American Sign Language, Russian, German, Hmong, Chinese Lao, and Vietnamese.

Well is seems that the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission has been instructed to “consider” translating into Spanish a statement given to all drunken-driving suspects. That’s the recommendation of an appeals court that upheld a Hispanic man’s conviction for refusing to take a breath test. The court said state law does not require translation.

However, the judges said the MVC should consider having the statement translated into Spanish and “perhaps other prevalent foreign languages.” The court said recordings could be played for suspects who need translation. Police read German Marquez the 11-paragraph statement explaining the test after he was arrested following an accident in Plainfield in 2007. Marquez responded in Spanish that he didn’t understand.

We’re confident that consideration is taking place.