Unlike most media outlets, the Financial Times published an article this week describing the sharp decline in the number of immigrants entering the US over the past few years. In an article that would make LouDobbs cringe, FT reporter Edward Luce describes how 2 years after being the “biggest lightening rod” in US politics, some Republicans are bringing the issue to the national stage once more.

Republicans such as Iowa senator ChuckGrassley have written to Microsoft urging them to terminate foreign workers on H1B visas. Grassley believes it is the duty of American companies to put the American workers first during the crisis even though all of the Microsoft workers on H1B visas are legal and fully qualified workers.

In the mainstream media and from anti-immigrant organizations such as FAIR, the overwhelming message is that the number of immigrants entering the country is a major problem and the number of immigrants, undocumented and legal is increasing year by year. These statements are totally false. The fact is that since 2002, the number of immigrants entering the United States has been declining rapidly.

According to the Pew Hispanic Center the number of undocumented immigrants entering the United States declined by 300,000 between 2006 and 2007 and the Center believes the number has declined much further between 2007 and 2008. Since 2000, the number of arrests of undocumented immigrants has dropped by over 1 million since the high of 2000. These are the numbers that BillO’Reilly and Lou Dobbs don’t want you to hear.

Because the mainstream media is so flooded with anti-immigrant propaganda, the American public does not get to see the other side of the story. Because of the overwhelming amount of negative media coverage the perception is that illegal immigration is an increasing problem. European countries such as Germany have similar problems with perception. In Germany there is a small Turkish minority. Many Germans when asked about the Turkish minority in the country believe the number to be greater than 10%. The fact is that the population is much smaller – only about 2.6 million of Germany’s 83 million are of Turkish dissent.

Bringing the immigration issue to the forefront of American politics again may be a death sentence for the Republican Party. After their devastating loss in the November election, the last thing Republicans need to be doing is alienating the emerging Latino vote by promoting anti-immigrant views. The perception that the immigrant population is increasing by the year needs to be reversed. This can only happen if that facts like the ones published in the Financial Times article are more openly accessible to the American public. We must stop relying on CNN and Fox News for all of our information and look for alternate news sources.