Bob Wilson
Spokane Immigration Examiner
January 3, 2012

Whether you are a republican or a democrat, and whether the election is for the President or a state representative, the immigrant populations’ influence on the election outcome is increasing with each passing year.

The numbers for the last ten years spotlight this rising influence. Each year on average another one million persons receive status as a Lawfully Admitted Permanent Resident (Green Card Holder) while another 650,000 people are naturalized and, if eighteen, eligible to vote.

Just the Facts…

According to the U.S. Census bureau’s latest numbers 38,517,000 people in the United States were born in another country. That is approximately 12.5 percent of the total population of the United States estimated at 307 million people.

Washington State mirrors that percentage with 12.1 percent of its residents being foreign born. Spokane County, the largest county in Eastern Washington with just over 417,000 residents, only has 4.8 percent foreign born residents. Other Eastern Washington Counties such as Yakima, Grant and Franklin have a much higher percentage of foreign born residents: 17.2 percent, 16.8 percent and 25.4 percent respectively.[1]

Lawfully Admitted Permanent Residents

The Department of Homeland Security estimates as of 2010 there are 12,630,000 Lawfully Admitted Permanent Residents(LPRs) in the United States. Of these 3.3 million originate from Mexico or 26 percent of the total. The next highest leading source countries were the Philippines and China at .6 Million each and India at .5 Million.[2]

Each year between 2001 and 2010 with the exception of 2003 and 2004, the United States granted over one million more people status as Lawfully Admitted Permanent Residents!

Lawfully Admitted Permanent Residents are not allowed to vote in most elections. But of these twelve million residents, more than eight million are eligible to naturalize to become US Citizens!

Naturalized U.S. Citizens

Between 2001 and 2010 more than 6.5 million people were naturalized or about 650,000 per year.[3] Naturalizations each year ranged from a low of just over 462,000 in 2003 to a high of over one million in 2008. Of this number, approximately one third originates from “North America” which includes Canada, Mexico and Central America.

Mexico has the highest number of citizens naturalized each year. Canada contributes less than two percent to this number meaning that over 98 percent are from Mexico and Central America.

Illegal Immigrants

The Department of Homeland Security estimates there are 10.8 million unauthorized residents(illegal aliens) within the United States in 2010 down from a high of approximately 11.8 million illegals in 2007![4] According to this same report 6.6 million or 62 percent originate from Mexico. Most believe this is an underestimate with as many as 20 million people currently in the U.S. illegally.

With amnesty ever regurgitated, the influence of the 10 to 20 million illegal immigrants who will eventually be eligible to vote, increases the substantial influence that the immigrant population of the United States wields.

[4]DHS “Estimates of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population Residing in the United States, January 2010



[1]U.S. Census Bureau, State and County Quickfacts

[2]DHS/Immigration Statistics, “Estimates of the Legal Permanent Resident Population in 2010”

[3]DHS Yearbook of Immigration Statistics 2010 Table 20








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