Thread: Groups at odds over number of illegal immigrants in U.S.

Groups at odds over number of illegal immigrants in U.S.
Statistics, politics play part in numbers game
By Eunice Moscoso
WASHINGTON BUREAU
Sunday, October 14, 2007

WASHINGTON — How many illegal immigrants are there in the United States?

The answer depends on who you ask and when you ask it.

The Department of Homeland Security estimates about 11.6 million, and the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research group in Washington, estimates about 12 million. The Urban Institute, a think tank that focuses on minority issues, says it's about 10 million.

The investment firm Bear Stearns stunned many a few years ago with an analysis that put the figure as high as 20 million, based in part on remittances sent to home countries.

Groups seeking stronger immigration enforcement say most calculations are low.

The activist group Californians for Population Stabilization, which says that high levels of immigration are ruining the quality of life in that state, released a report this month with studies that estimated there are from 20 million to 38 million illegal immigrants nationwide.

Immigration advocates and Hispanic groups say those estimates are scare tactics designed to stoke opposition to illegal immigration.

Cecilia Munoz, vice president for policy at the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic civil rights organization, said inflated calculations start to appear when the immigration issue stirs up in Congress.

"Now that we're back in the land of the hysterical debates, people are throwing around crazy numbers," she said.

Munoz says her group takes the total number of foreign-born people in the United States, counted by the census, and subtracts the total number of legal immigrants and naturalized citizens, she said. The census does not ask people their legal status.

Jeffrey Passel, a senior research associate at the Pew center, says his estimate includes an adjustment for those not counted by the census.

Passel said some of the higher calculations are based on unscientific methods, such as assuming that a certain number of illegal immigrants get by the Border Patrol for every one that gets caught.

But others say that census figures can't be trusted because they are based on voluntary information.

Diana Hull, president of Californians for Population Stabilization, said that in Santa Barbara, for example, families of 20 to 30 illegal immigrants live in a two- or three-bedroom home and would have no reason to give accurate information to the Census.

"Why in the world would they even answer the question, or why would they tell you they're in violation of all the residential planning rules in the neighborhood?" she said.

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/n ... mbers.html

Diana Hull, president of Californians for Population Stabilization, said that in Santa Barbara, for example, families of 20 to 30 illegal immigrants live in a two- or three-bedroom home and would have no reason to give accurate information to the Census.

These living arrangements are much more common than you'd believe.

OH PLEASE. THEY HAVE NO CLUE HOW MANY ILLEGALS ARE IN THIS COUNTRY. LOL....CENSUS? I BET ONLY A SMALL PERCENTAGE EVEN SENT IT IN.

WHEN YOU DONT FILL OUT A CENSUS, THEY TRY TO CONTACT SOME OF THOSE PEOPLE BUT DONT GET TO ALL OF THEM. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS NOT ANSWER THE DOOR.

AND HOW MANY ILLEGALS ARE LIVING IN PARKS AND ON THE STREET? HOW MANY ARE LIVING IN CARS? HOW MANY STAY IN HOTEL ROOMS? HOW MANY GO FROM FRIEND TO FRIEND? HOW MANY LIVE IN THEIR PLACE OF EMPLOYMENT. I HAVE HEARD THAT SOME WHO HIRE ILLEGALS ACTUALLY LET THEM SLEEP ON THE FLOOR IN THE WORKPLACE. THIS IS SO THEY CAN PAY THEM EVEN LESS.

THE CENSUS IS EVERY TEN YEARS. HOW MANY HAVE ENTERED SINCE THE LAST CENSUS? HOW MANY MOVE SO OFTEN THAT THEY ARE NEVER COUNTED? WHAT ABOUT DROP HOUSES? THEY FILL OUT THE CENSUS? RIGHT.

Good questions redpony353. And of course, the ethnic pressure groups way underestimate the count and lobby against accurate record keeping because they know that if citizens were aware of the real count, they would be even more outraged than they are now.

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