State bucks national trend on illegal immigrants
Indiana's numbers jump from 2008 to 2009
By Bill Straub
Evansville Courier & Press
Posted September 12, 2010 at 12:33 a.m.

The number of illegal immigrants in Indiana grew substantially in 2009, though the national total dropped

WASHINGTON — The number of illegal immigrants settling in Indiana grew substantially in 2009, according to a report by the Pew Hispanic Center.

That bucks a national trend that saw the number of illegal immigrants crossing the borders decline during a period when the United States suffered massive job losses and stepped up border enforcement.

Indiana served as the base for an estimated 120,000 illegal immigrants in 2009, more than the 100,000 found in the state in 2008.

Analysts noted the totals were derived from a range of estimates and the increase may not prove to be as stark as approximated.

In Vanderburgh and surrounding counties, illegal immigrants constitute less than 1 percent of the population.

Illegal immigrants appear to have had a small impact on Indiana when compared with many other states.

Undocumented immigrants constitute an estimated 1.9 percent of Indiana's population, according to the report, ranking it 31st in the category among the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

About 2.5 percent of the state's work force is in the country illegally, representing about 80,000 workers.

The impact of illegal immigration is felt even less in Kentucky, although, like Indiana, the numbers have soared over the past two decades.

According to the report, titled, "U.S. Unauthorized Immigration Flows are Down Sharply Since Mid-Decade," the Bluegrass State houses approximately 50,000 illegal immigrants or 1.2 percent of the population.

The share of the work force held by undocumented workers is 1.4 percent, or 30,000 individuals.

The report's authors did not have information about population decreases at the county level. But in Vanderburgh and surrounding counties, illegal immigrants are almost certainly below the state average because U.S. Census Bureau data shows the region's total Latino population is less than 1 percent.

But the report leaves no doubt the number of unauthorized immigrants entering Indiana has grown markedly over the past 20 years. Pew estimates the state housed 10,000 in 1990.

Nationwide, the total number of illegal immigrants has declined from about 12 million in March 2007 to the current estimate of 11.1 million, according to Pew, a decline of 8 percent.

The total represents less than 4 percent of the U.S. population.

"The decrease represents the first significant reversal in the growth of this population over the past two decades," said Jeffrey Passel, senior demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center and co-author of the report with D'Vera Cohn, a senior writer with the Pew Research Center.

Pew, a Washington-based think tank, found the most marked decline in the illegal immigrant population involved Latin American countries other than Mexico. From 2007 to 2009, immigrants from the Caribbean, Central America and South America decreased 22 percent.

Meanwhile, the number of illegal immigrants from Mexico, which accounts for about 60 percent of the total, leveled off after reaching a peak of 7 million in 2007.

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