The real wages of Mexicans in the U.S. have declined since 1970, and Princeton sociologists say a “perfect storm” of anti-immigrant laws is to blame.

Princeton sociologists argue that a “new regime of immigration enforcement” is to blame for the stagnant wages of Mexicans in the U.S.

An annual Christmas pilgrimage used to see perhaps millions of Mexican immigrants, documented or not, return to Mexico from the U.S. for the holidays. But that flow has slowed as the U.S. militarizes its southern border and violence back home reduces the motherland’s charms. But the economic charms of working in the U.S. are paling, too.

Among the so-called 99 percent of people in the United States who have not shared in the rising prosperity of recent decades, Mexican immigrants have fared worse than most. While the real wages of other groups have remained fairly stagnant since 1970, studies show that the wages of Mexican-born workers in the United States have actually declined, whether the workers were here legally or not.