Study: California leads U.S. in illegal immigrants

Study shows state is home to 23% of the nation's population

From staff and news services
Posted: 09/01/2010 07:13:20 PM PDTUpdated: 09/01/2010 07:27:52 PM PDT

A new study says nearly a quarter of the nation's illegal immigrants live in California, despite a nearly 4 percent drop in the state's illegal population.

A Pew Hispanic Center report released Wednesday estimates California had 2.55 million illegal immigrants in 2009, a 3.8 percent decrease from the year before. The state accounts for 23 percent of illegal immigrants in the United States.

The study also says illegal immigrants now compose 6.9 percent of California's population - the highest percentage in the country.

But Los Angeles County officials said they have actually seen an increase in the costs of providing services to undocumented immigrants and in the number of citizen children of undocumented parents receiving Food Stamps and welfare benefits.

The amount of money the county spends on health, welfare and criminal justice services for undocumented immigrants increased from $1 billion in 2008 to $1.4 billion in 2009, according to figures provided by county Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich. By including the education costs for the children of undocumented immigrants, Antonovich's spokesman, Tony Bell, said the annual costs now exceed $2 billion.

"It's been increasing gradually, but consistently over the years," Bell said. "It leads me to believe that illegal immigration continues to have a catastrophic financial impact on county taxpayers without regards to surveys showing a smaller population or not."

From January to July, the number of citizen children of undocumented parents receiving Food Stamps in the county increased 4 percent from 103,238 to 107,504, according to the Department of Public Social Services.

Other findings

Residency: The states with the highest percentage of illegal immigrants were California (6.9 percent), Nevada (6.8), Texas (6.5) and Arizona (5.8). The numbers are expected to play an important factor in whether those states lose or gain U.S. House seats after the 2010 census.

Foreign born: Illegal immigrants make up about 28 percent of the foreign-born population in the U.S., down from 31 percent in 2007.

Employment: The unemployment rate for illegal immigrants in March 2009 was 10.4 percent.

http://www.presstelegram.com/breakingnews/ci_15966333