Texas leads illegal immigrant increase
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/state/11200352.htm
Posted on Tue, Mar. 22, 2005
Texas leads illegal immigrant increase
By Dave Montgomery
Star-Telegram Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - • A survey says that illegal immigration into Texas appears to be outpacing other states.
Despite toughened border safeguards in the aftermath of 9-11, the population of illegal immigrants in the United States has edged steadily upward to nearly 11 million, with Texas accounting for a large share of the increase, according to a survey released Monday.
Texas has 1.4 million illegal immigrants, the second-largest population of undocumented residents behind California, which has 2.4 million, according to the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington.
Jeffrey Passel, who conducted the survey, said that illegal immigration into Texas appears to be outpacing other states, possibly because of a robust economy attracting job-seekers from across the border with Mexico.
Over the last 15 years, he said, the number of illegal immigrants in the Lone Star State has more than tripled from an estimated 400,000 in 1990.
The state accounts for 14 percent of the nationwide population of illegal immigrants, compared with 11 percent of the nationwide estimate of 3.3 million in 1990.
Although it has 24 percent of the total, illegal immigration in California appeared to increase at a slower rate than in Texas, Passel said.
Others agreed with the assessment.
"The numbers have grown dramatically," said Hector Flores of Dallas, national president of the League of United Latin American Citizens. "On my daily route to work, I see people on the corners looking for jobs. I think a majority of them are looking for ways to feed their families."
Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso, a former border patrol agent who sponsored a conference on immigration and border issues last week, said he questioned some aspects of the study but felt the report accurately reflects illegal immigration trends in Texas.
"Just based on size, California and Texas would make the logical one and two," Reyes said.
Nationally, the number of illegal immigrants grew from 8.4 million in 2000 to 10.3 million in March 2004 and was approaching 11 million by March of this year, the report said.
Over the past four years, the growth rate has averaged about a half-million a year, but the survey said the number of new illegal immigrants could reach as high as 700,000 to 800,000 annually.
"It shows that in the face of 9-11 and increased border enforcement, the numbers continued to grow," Passel said in a telephone interview.
Sixty-five percent of the illegal immigrants in the country -- 6.7 million -- arrived since 1995; 30 percent, or 3.1 million, arrived since 2000.
The report may add fuel to a congressional debate to overhaul the nation's immigration laws. President Bush is scheduled to host Mexican President Vicente Fox at his Crawford ranch Wednesday as part of a three-day summit that includes Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin. Fox has pressed for U.S. reforms to ease restrictions on illegal immigrants from Mexico.
An estimated 5.9 million Mexicans are living in the United States illegally, the report says, and they are 57 percent of the total undocumented population. Another 24 percent are from other Latin American countries. Asians make up 9 percent; Europeans and Canadians, 6 percent; and those from African and other nations, 4 percent.
The report does not specify immigrants from Middle Eastern countries.
The number of Mexican migrants, both illegal and those permitted entry, has increased almost 15-fold since 1970, from 760,000 to more than 11 million in 2004.
"This remarkable growth has been largely driven by undocumented migration," the report said. "On average, the Mexican population living in the United States has grown by about half a million people a year over the past decade. Unauthorized migrants have accounted for about 80-85 percent of that increase."
Two-thirds of the illegal immigrants live in eight states -- California, Texas, Florida, New York, Arizona, Illinois, New Jersey and North Carolina. But illegal immigrants are also fanning out into other parts of the nation in search of jobs, the report said.
Since the mid-1990s, "the most rapid growth in the immigrant population in general and the undocumented population in particular" has occurred in states immigrants typically bypassed, the report said.
For example, six states -- Georgia, Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, Virginia and Washington -- had illegal immigrant populations of between 200,000 and 250,000, the report said.
The study also found that although most illegal immigrants are young adults, "there is a sizable childhood population;" an estimated 1.7 million, or one-sixth of the total, are younger than 18, the report concluded.
The survey also reported a "significant number of women" -- 29 percent.
Reyes said he believes the total is too high, saying that a more likely assessment is somewhere between 3 million and 9 million illegal immigrants.
"I would look at these estimates and studies with a kind of a jaundiced eye," he said. "I don't think there's a good way to estimate. It's like asking a fisherman how many fish did you not catch."
By the numbers
• The national population growth of illegal immigrants has averaged about a half-million a year.
• Texas has 1.4 million illegal immigrants.
