Unauthorized Immigrant Population

National and Gulf South trends reflected in new report

By Dr. Susan Weishar, Migration Specialist

The number of unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. as of March, 2010, is estimated to be 11,200,000 persons, according to a recent study by the Pew Hispanic Trust. This number is virtually unchanged from 2009, when the first significant decline in unauthorized immigrants in two decades was recorded. Unauthorized immigrants were 3.7 percent of the U.S. population in 2010, and 5.2 percent of the U.S. labor force.

The decline in the population of unauthorized immigrants from a peak of 12 million in 2007 appears largely due to a decrease in numbers from Mexico. Unauthorized immigrants from Mexico totaled 7 million in 2007 and 6.5 million in 2010. Mexicans account for 58 percent of the total of unauthorized immigrants. The authors note that their study was not designed to answer questions as to why these changes have occurred, but cite several possible factors, including the recession, changes in immigration enforcement strategies, and demographic and economic conditions in sending countries.

In contrast to the national trend, the combined unauthorized immigrant population in Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas grew from 2007 to 2010. (The change was not statistically significant for these three states individually). Texas is second only to California in the number of unauthorized immigrants.

The table below lists data from the study on total population and labor force participation for the five Gulf South states that are the focus of JSRI’s work.

Table 1- Number and Share for Total Population and Labor Force of Unauthorized Immigrants for Five Gulf Coast States and U.S., 2010

Although the number of unauthorized immigrants is below 2007 levels, it is still triple the number in 1990, which was 3.5 million. There are many reasons why unauthorized immigration grew from 1990 to 2007, including the “push” factor of NAFTA’s devastating impact on Mexican agriculture, the “pull” factor of U.S. jobs during a time of U.S. economic expansion, and the militarization of the border, beginning with Operation Gatekeeper in 1994, which has discouraged circular migration. ¹

The number of children born to at least one unauthorized-immigrant parent in 2009 was 8 percent of all U.S. births, and totaled 350,000, essentially the same figures as the year before. The study found that 61 percent of the unauthorized immigrant parents of babies born in 2009 had arrived more than 5 years ago, and that 30 percent had arrived between 2004 and 2007. These data on births to unauthorized immigrants put the lie to offensive claims that pregnant immigrant women cross the U.S. border to “drop” a baby.

Estimates for the Pew Hispanic Report are from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey for March 2010, augmented with an analysis by the Pew Hispanic Center that utilized a “residual estimation methodology.” (The U.S. Census does not inquire into respondents’ immigration legal status.)

1. See Miguel A. De La Torre, Trails of Hope and Terror: Testimonies on Immigration. Orbis Books, 2009.