The source of much of our illigal immigration problems is the deplorable socio-economic conditions of much of Latin America. On paper, many of these countries have democratic governments. In reality, they are ruled by an elite aristocracy that comprises at most, 10% of the population. These governments don't oppress their people in ways that would risk military intervention by us; rather, they oppress them by depriving them of opportunities to improve their standard of living. Those in power down there know that if general economic conditions improve, they would be out of power. The sad thing is that this situation to our south isn't much different from the northeastern parts of our own nation.