Illegal aliens in U.S. number over 13,000,000

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), Jan, 2008

The illegal immigrant population of the U.S. now exceeds 13,000,000, according to a report from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), Washington, D.C. In 2000, the now-defunct Immigration and Naturalization Service estimated that there were a little more than 7,000,000 people residing illegally in the U.S.

The burden and costs of illegal immigration still are distributed unevenly across the country, but states and regions that virtually were immune to the impact of large-scale immigration just a decade ago currently are feeling the effects, finds the study. About 60% of all illegal immigrants are settled in just six states--California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, and New Jersey. Other reports by FAIR indicate that the combined costs of K-12 education, health care, and incarceration of criminals to those six states exceeds $27,000,-000,000 annually.

"These new estimates, showing explosive growth in illegal immigration in recent years, indicate why Americans all across the country are demanding that the government control our borders and block illegal immigrants from working or receiving benefits in this country," declares Dan Stein, president of FAIR. "Almost from the day the Bush Administration took office, they made it clear that their aim was to reward illegal immigration with amnesty and assorted other benefits. As a result, we have seen record increases in illegal immigration, mounting burdens on taxpayers, and unprecedented public concern about this issue!'

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At 13,175,000 people, the illegal influx for the U.S. is larger than the entire population of Illinois, the nation's fifth most populous state. The phenomenon also has become a national one in the past decade. Over three-fifths of the states have seen their illegal alien counts more than double since 2000. In all, 24 states now have illegal populations that exceed 100,000.

"There are no overnight fixes to a problem that has been growing for years, but the American public strongly supports an enforcement-first approach that discourages new people from coming illegally and encourages millions who are here to return home," Stein comments. "What is clear is that lack of enforcement and proposed amnesties have only exacerbated the problem."