US immigration policies and dynamics of cross-border workforce in agriculture

Given the contentious debate on immigration, this study develops a dynamic model to analyse the effects of stricter border and domestic enforcement and streamlining the guest-worker programme on cross-border migration from Mexico, employment and production in US labour-intensive and Mexican agriculture and the US and Mexican wage rates. The model incorporates labour-leisure decisions of Mexican workers and labour market dynamics and linkages. The findings show stricter border and domestic controls exacerbate the labour-shortage problems and reduce the US agricultural production. Streamlining the guest-worker programme provides a steady supply of farm workers and has negligible impact on the US wage.