Two stories about different stages in the illegal immigration value chain. First, business at the dusty border towns transit points is down:

Maribel Navarro remembers a time, not so long ago, when afternoons at La Perla restaurant in the remote border settlement of Sásabe, on the Arizona-Mexico border, meant crowded tables and queues stretching out of the door. The truck-loads of Mexican and Central American migrants who descended on Sásabe en route to the US provided enough business not only for Ms Navarro but for the whole community. Some estimates suggest that more than 1,000 migrants – between a third and a half of the total number – passed through Sásabe every day. This lunchtime, however, Ms Navarro is struggling to find things to do. The pots are bubbling on the stove, the tables have been set and the only movement in the semi-gloom is a few flies tracing rectangles in the air. “It’s dead here,” she says. “Sásabe is turning into a ghost town.” The sharp changes felt in Sásabe are the latest evidence that the huge volume of undocumented migrants, which for decades has flowed back and forth between Mexico and the US, is contracting sharply as the increasing difficulty of crossing has made migrants think twice about trying.

Meanwhile, the business end of the value chain is as foul, corrupt and inhumane as ever:

Agriprocessors' owner and four executives at the meat-processing plant could face jail time under a slew of criminal charges filed Tuesday. The five were each charged with 9,311 child labor violations, all involving 32 youths under age 18, the state attorney general's office said. Seven of the workers were younger than 16.Court documents allege the underage workers were exposed to poisonous chemicals, such as chlorine solutions, and dangerous substances, such as dry ice. Some were employed to operate power-driven machinery such as conveyor belts, meat grinders, circular saws, power washers and power shears. Agriprocessors leaders said that the youths lied about their age to get hired and that the company was not at fault. Separately, federal authorities on Tuesday charged two of the executives with felonies. They were accused of helping compile fake human resources paperwork for employees even though they allegedly knew the workers were undocumented immigrants.

Having broken the law to enter the country, illegal immigrants create second-order a problem: they have an unintended but undeniable hand in their own abuse. They can't protect themselves because of the conditions under which they accepted employment. They might as wear signs on their backs saying "Kick Me!"