Between 1997 and 2000, the ratio of women crossing the border rose from 3.3 percent of all migrants to 6 percent. The number of Indians crossing the border also rose sharply. By 2000, 8 percent of all migrants were Indians.

The report also found that the ratio of migrants who obtained work permits or visas and crossed the border legally fell from 50 percent of all migrants between 1993 and 1997 to just 38 percent by 2000.

In the same period, the ratio of Mexicans making their first border crossing -- as opposed to those who cross, return to Mexico, and cross again -- rose from 30 percent of all migrants to 53 percent.

Of the total, only 2.3 percent reported returning to Mexico because they couldn't find U.S. jobs and just 12.5 percent reported being caught by U.S authorities and deported.

The council's report also states that Mexico receives more money sent home by migrants than any other country, about $6 billion annually. But, it found that those funds usually go to support families who live at a subsistence level in Mexico, and thus are unlikely to spark economic development.

The number of households in Mexico receiving money sent home by relatives working in the United States rose from $600,000 in 1992 to $1.25 million in 2000. For 40 percent of those households, the remittances -- averaging between $3,000 and $4,000 per year -- are their only source of cash income, the report concluded.