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Counting Illegal Immigrants in the U.S.
December 12th, 2007 @ 4:49am
by Kevin Tripp/KTAR

How many illegal immigrants are in the United States? There is some surprising agreement on the numbers from people on both sides of the immigration debate.

They believe there's at least 11-million.

Immigrants rights activist Eliaz Bermudez of Phoenix said the research is solid.

``We have found those numbers on the census data and also in some studies that have been done by the Pew Hispanic Center," Bermudez said.

Mark Krikorian is head of the Center for Immigration Studies and favors a crackdown on illegal immigration. But, he cites the same census data and adds, ``The Pew Hispanic Center also did an estimate which was consistent with the same range of numbers, 11 to 12 million."

The only disagreement is on what the high number of illegal immigrants might be.

``We believe the low number is about 12-million, the high number could reach up to 20-million," said Bermudez.

Krikorian doubts there could be 20-million.

``If the number of illegal immigrants were dramatically higher, something like 20-million or more that some people have thrown around, you would almost certainly see the results of that in death certificates and birth certificates," Krikorian said.

Both Bermudez and Krikorian said the U.S. Census Bureau and Pew Hispanic Center provide reliable data.


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