Thread: Most illegal immigrants are in family units, new report find

Most illegal immigrants are in family units, new report finds

This story was published Thursday, June 16th, 2005

By Andrew Sirocchi, Herald staff writer

A new report released by the Pew Hispanic Center quashes the stereotypical notion that illegal immigrants are uneducated single men who make their way in the United States working in fields or building houses.

Instead, the report found that most of the illegal population live in family units, that a quarter have at least some college education and that undocumented workers can be found in many sectors of the economy.

"Not all of the unauthorized population fits the stereotype of a poorly educated manual laborer," said demographer Jeffrey Passel, who prepared the report "Unauthorized Migrants: Numbers and Characteristics."

The Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research organization based in Washington, D.C., estimated only 3 percent of the undocumented population have found work in agriculture, while 33 percent work in service jobs. Construction and other labor-intensive fields occupy 16 percent of the workers, while 17 percent can be found working in production, installation and repair fields, the report said.




The report, though, is not likely to provide an accurate picture of life in Eastern Washington. In Pasco, school officials have said the days when cafeterias were filled with the children of migrant farm workers have passed. Most farm workers are legal immigrants, but more often, officials have said it is single men or those who have left their families elsewhere who are coming to work the region's fields.

Dr. Larry Jecha, who works with immigrant families for the Benton-Franklin Health District, said his organization won't ask for a client's immigration status. But he said much of the population he sees works in agricultural fields, and it's likely that some of those are in the country illegally.

"I think (the figures are) way skewed," he said. "Those are for New York and places like that. I don't think those figures would even apply to our area."

Gabriel Portugal, a Pasco member on the Washington Hispanic Affairs Commission, also said he believes the Mid-Columbia's share of illegal immigrants working in agriculture is larger than the national average.

"Every state is different because they have more reliability on agriculture or industry," he said. "I would think that Washington has a higher percentage in agriculture than the 3 percent."

But Portugal said the national estimates are likely very accurate. Since 1994, when the Mexican peso was devalued, more and more affluent, educated and middle-class Hispanics began looking at the United States as an opportunity, he said.

"A lot of folks who were in jobs in an office -- professionals, even bankers, even nurses -- from all spectrums of professions, began to struggle to make ends meet," he said. "And so a lot of the migration (came) from folks who would not otherwise come to the United States."

On a national level, Pew estimated the number of unauthorized migrants living in the United States is nearing 11 million people.

The Pew report also estimated as many as 13.9 million people are living in families headed by someone who came to the United States without documentation, including 4.7 million children. Most of those children -- 3.2 million according to Pew -- are U.S. citizens by birth.

"The large number of U.S. citizen children born to parents with no legal status highlights one of the thorniest dilemmas in developing policies to deal with the unauthorized population," said Pew Director Roberto Suro in an an-nouncement highlighting the report's findings.

Pew developed the report for the Independent Task Force on Immigration and America's Future, which is led by former U.S. Sen. Spencer Abraham, R-Mich., and former U.S. Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind. The center is not participating in the task force's deliberations or policy recommendations.

The report also found:

-- Since the mid-1990s, illegal immigrants have outpaced legal immigrants. Pew estimates 700,000 people per year arrived in the United States illegally in the past several years, while 610,000 people arrived with documentation.

-- The education level of undocumented migrants arriving in recent years is higher than that of those in the country for 10 years or more.

-- About a quarter of the drywall and ceiling tile installers in the United States are working illegally as are a quarter of all meat and poultry workers and a quarter of all dishwashers.

-- Men who arrive in the United States illegally are more likely to look for work than women without documentation.

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/tch/local ... 6968c.html

Once again, PEWEY PEW at work. Here are the facts:

1. The Social Security Administration has 7,200,000 tax returns for "households" of the illegal alien variety. A typical immigrant household is at least the national average (2.7) we and have strong reason to believe from empirical evidence that the typical immigrant household is greater than 2.7. There is also evidence, substantial, to show that the Latino household is much larger.

2. Use 4 x 7,200,000 for the "family" of illegal aliens as an average household and whaddya got--28,800,000 illegal aliens WHO FILE TAX RETURNS.

3. Now ADD all those illegal alien familieis that DO NOT FILE TAX RETURNS which is mostof them, but use a 1:1 ragio and whaddya got--28,800,000.

4. Now ADD those two numbers together and whaddya got--57,600,000 illegal aliens in the US ECONOMY!!

5. In the 1970's due to public policy and education, the US stabilized its birth rate so that our population became stable at "replacement". This means, the population in the 1970's should be with slight variation due to a longer life and some increases in Legal Immigration about 250,000,000 by the 2000 Census but we were at 295,000,000....and are TODAY 304,000,000.

6. THIS GROWTH is not coming from American birth rates...it is coming from illegal immigration and their spawn. PEW is dishonest or they would report these simple facts even a DemographicsDummy like myself can figure out.

7. PEW LIED TO THE PUBLIC when they published a report of 10,300,000 illegal aliens that "ASSUMES" these are single male workers. These may be male workers but their families are here too so multiply that number by 4 and whaaya got? 40,000,000 as of 2000. Now they're saying they've counted 13,000,000 x 4 = 52,000,0000. NOW we're getting close to ACCURATE.

8. The reason schools and hospitals are in trouble is not because of single male workers....it's illegal "families"!!

Also, the BORDER PATROL COUNTS five million a year coming across the borders...this is what they told Sean Hannity who released this fact on his show on Fox News about 3 weeks ago. The NEXT TIME he said it, he qualified it as between 4,000,000 and 5,000,000 so apparently the exact number is between 4,000,000 and 5,000,000. These are the ONES the Border Patrol KNOWS IT MISSSED!! Border Patrol only catches about 1,300,000--while 4,000,000 to 5,000,000 whiz in!

WHAT KIND OF "research organization" wouldn't check with the Social Security Administration and ask..."How many do you got in your records?" or ask Border Patrol "How many do you got in your satellite photos comin in that you don't catch?"

Now, let's play the number another way. If there were 10,300,000 single male illegal aliens according to the PEW HISPANIC CENTER funded by SUN OIL COMPANY in 2000....and we adjust the number to include the "families" we know are crowing our schools, closing our hospitals, signing up for welfare (single male men don't qualify, American or NOT) and use our multiply x 4 for household = 41,200,000. NOW ADD the lowest number of the Border Patrol information of 4,000,000 per year x 4 years since 2000 Census = 16,000,000--ADD this to the 41,200,000 and whaddya got? Yep.....57,200,000. Have we seen that number somewhere before? Why yes, we have--ITEM 3 above--57,600,000. Close enuf for me!!

My 50,000,000 was from more than a year ago....so adjust for the added "time" and once again "close enuf for me".

GET READY!! You will see the number verified very soon!!

The Pew Hispanic Center has been used to LIE TO THE AMERICAN PUBLIC. John McCain and Ted Kennedy are using their foolish dishonest numbers to promote their Amnesty Bill...when as US Senators they have direct access to Social Security numbers and obviously Border Patrol and US Census and every other damn number they would care to consider. THEY BOTH KNOW they are promoting the amnesty of between 50,000,000 and 60,000,000 foreign nationals...few of whom are "workers", the other a complete drain on our economy, our society, our social services, our medical services, our education system.

And a lot of them have new cars too!! And they're looking to buy a house, too!!!

Don't worry, President Bush...they're doing much better than you think!!!!

Yes, LegalUSCitizen--they have a new car, an American should have, and a new house, an American should have!!

PEW LIED TO THE PUBLIC

I guess that there is a good reason why their name is "PEW," since their
research STINKS.