Thread: Illegal immigrant levels in USA remain the same

Report: Illegal immigrant levels in USA remain the same

By Alan Gomez, USA TODAY
Updated 1h 36m ago |

WASHINGTON — The number of illegal immigrants living in Colorado, Florida, New York and Virginia dropped in 2010, while the total number of 11.2 million immigrants in the country remained roughly the same as the year before, according to a report released Monday.

The number of illegal immigrants skyrocketed in the first half of the decade, rising from 8.4 million in 2000 to a high of 12 million in 2007, according to the report by the non-partisan Pew Hispanic Center. But those numbers started dropping in the past two years before leveling off in 2010.

Jeffrey Passel, senior demographer at the center, said the continued weakness of the U.S. economy and increased immigration enforcement efforts on the U.S. side have kept the illegal immigration population from growing significantly in the past three years.

"It seems like… people have decided that at this point the cost and risk is not worth trying to get into the United States because the jobs aren't here," Passel said.

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Jack Martin of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates for lower levels of immigration, said the new figures indicate that the U.S. still has little control of the border.

The Department of Homeland Security deported 392,000 illegal immigrants in 2010 — an all-time high. Martin said that if the number of illegal immigrants did not decrease during that time, then it's a clear indication that the border remains out of control.

Eric Rodriguez, vice president of the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic civil rights group, disagreed. From 2000 to 2010, the number of Border Patrol agents has increased from 9,000 to 20,000, and Rodriguez said that has played a large factor in stemming the tide of illegal crossings.

"Certainly when you ask people along the border, they'll tell you it's become very, very difficult coming back and forth," Rodriguez said.

By the numbers

The estimated number of illegal immigrants by year:


Source: Pew Hispanic CenterAmong the report's other findings:

• 350,000 babies were born in the U.S. in 2010 to at least one illegal immigrant parent, similar to the total for the previous year.

• Of the parents of babies born in 2010, 61% arrived in the U.S. before 2004, 30% arrived from 2004 to 2007, and 9% arrived in the U.S. in 2008 or later.

• Illegal immigrants accounted for 28% of the total immigrant population in the U.S. in 2010, down from a high of 31% in 2007.

• Florida's illegal immigration population fell from 1.05 million in 2007 to 825,000 in 2010. New York lost about 200,000 illegal immigrants in those years, Virginia about 115,000 and Colorado about 60,000.

The report was based on data from the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the center analyzed demographic characteristics of the illegal immigrant population. The report covered a period from March 2009 to March 2010.
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Certainly when you ask people along the border, they'll tell you it's become very, very difficult coming back and forth," Rodriguez said.

He must have been taking cue from Napolitano on that statement