Immigration officials have said the new law appears already to be deterring illegal immigration.

The primary purpose of these inspection stations is to deter illegal immigration and smuggling activities.

The policies had the desired effect of deterring immigration from United States.

Mr. Gallegly said the Republican proposal would deter illegal immigration.

This was supposed to help eliminate the Chinese competition, and to deter Chinese immigration to California.

The other main part of the law, an effort to deter further illegal immigration, is a system of penalties against employers who hire illegal aliens.

But plaintiffs in the two lawsuits said that the denial of subsistence benefits to legal immigrants would do nothing to deter illegal immigration.

Historically, the boycott was also designed to deter Jewish immigration to the region.

The goal is to deter further illegal immigration while offering the protection of legal status to aliens who have lived here since the beginning of 1982.

"The whole idea that Nafta would create jobs on the Mexican side and thus deter immigration has just been dead wrong," he said.