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Posted April 27, 2006

Report: 75,000 immigrants not on Wisconsin's books

State is No. 21 in nation for total number of undocumented workers

By BRIAN TUMULTY
Press-Gazette Washington bureau


WASHINGTON — Wisconsin has 75,000 to 115,000 of the nation's 11.1 million undocumented immigrants, according to a report released Wednesday by the Pew Hispanic Center.

Immigration experts characterized the report as the first serious attempt to quantify the state's undocumented residents and said it is consistent with their personal observations.

Undocumented immigrants represent about 1.4 percent to 2.1 percent of the state's 5.5 million residents, which is comparable to western neighbor Minnesota but significantly less than Illinois, where Chicago is a major immigration destination.

It's also much less than the estimated 6.7 percent to 7.6 percent of Arizona residents and 6.9 percent to 7.6 percent of California residents without legal residence or citizenship.

The new estimate — which used the Census Bureau's March 2005 Current Population Survey for the calculations — ranks Wisconsin as No. 21 in terms of total number of undocumented immigrants.

California, the nation's most populous state with 36.1 million residents, also has the most undocumented immigrants — an estimated 2.5 million to 2.75 million.

Undocumented immigrants in Wisconsin tend to work in hotels, construction, landscaping, home repair and roofing, according to Rod Ritcherson, spokesman for United Migrant Opportunity Services in Milwaukee.

Most are from Mexico, and they take lower-wage jobs, Ritcherson said.

Enrique Figueroa, executive director of the Roberto Hernandez Center at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, said undocumented immigrants have been well received in Wisconsin because almost all of them are working.

"Folks that are the employers I assume are pretty satisfied," Figueroa said.

For Wisconsin, the undocumented population is roughly equal to the state's legal Hispanic population of about 100,000, said Ed Fallone, a professor who teaches immigration law at Marquette Law School in Milwaukee.

The state's proximity to Chicago has helped fuel a recent increase, Fallone said.

However, many legal Hispanic immigrants have lived in the state for decades and those who have followed have been unable to gain citizenship because the immigration system is broken, said Christine Neumann-Ortiz of Voces de la Frontera, a Milwaukee community action group.

Voces de la Frontera is organizing a demonstration in Milwaukee on Monday that is part of a national day of action by immigrant groups urging Congress to approve legislation that includes worker protections and a path to citizenship.

On the Net: pewhispanic.org.