But ISTM that would have placed the large illegal migration influx from Mexico as starting in the 1990s, when it had been ramping up through at the least 20 years prior.
The neoliberalization of trade policy between the U.S. and Mexico beginning with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and culminating with NAFTA coincided with a significant spike in immigration from Mexico into the United States. This is because these policy changes had a significant impact on the function of Mexico’s economy, transforming it from one based primarily on agriculture to one based primarily on manufacturing. Agricultural workers in Mexico displaced by these changes fled either to the major cities such as Guadalajara and Mexico City, or to the U.S.-Mexico border for manufacturing jobs. The rise of the foreign-owned maquiladoras (manufacturing centers) in Mexico, according to a comprehensive report by the U.N. (which I will fully cite later if someone needs it… right now the website I need to access it is down), the growth of the manufacturing industry in Mexico is insufficient to sustain its economy and cannot compensate for the loss in agricultural production.
There are a number of other factors that have contributed, I am sure, but U.S. foreign policy with Mexico seems to be a pretty significant one. Why this is so consistently overlooked in the immigration debate I will never understand.