U.S. borders prove porous: legal and illegal foreign residents represent a 57 percent increase in the immigrant population

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Dec 10, 2001 | by August Gribbin

More than 8 million people -- at least 1 million more than previously thought -- now live in the nation illegally, according to the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). The nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization bases its conclusion on an analysis of figures in Census Bureau documents.

"I find the figures on illegal residents flabbergasting," says Steven Camarota, the think tank's research director. "The numbers indicate that some 400,000 to 500,000 persons were flowing into the country each year since 1990, and that shows the nation has lost control of its borders."

The new estimate follows the disclosure that three of the terrorists in the Sept. 11 attacks were living in the United States illegally and that the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) had lost track of the other 16 hijackers. It also adds cogency to Congress' push to tighten border controls. As a statement from the CIS puts it, "The huge number of illegal aliens living in the country also has significant implications for public services as well as for the job prospects of low-wage Americans in the current economic downturn."

Figures in the Census Bureau document reveal that the nation harbors 31.1 million foreign-born people. The number includes legal and illegal residents and represents a 57 percent increase in the immigrant population within a decade. In 1990, 19.8 million immigrants lived in the United States.

"No nation in history has ever attempted to incorporate and assimilate 31 million newcomers into its society," says Camarota. "And the experiment is by no means over. If policy remains unchanged, at least 13 million legal and illegal immigrants will likely settle in the United States over the next 10 years."

The Census Bureau's immigration figures were not based on questions directly asked in the census, notes Kevin Deardorff, chief of the bureau's Ethnic and Hispanic Branch. "We got information from the Immigration and Naturalization Service about the number of legal immigrants who had come to the United States," Deardorff says. "Making some assumptions about people who fit into the various visa categories -- the number of temporary visas and the like -- we subtracted the number of legal immigrants from the total and came up with 8.7 million who were not temporary visitors and were not legal."

Not all of the 8.7 million are "unauthorized," Deardorff says. Some are in a quasi-legal status, waiting to have immigration cases adjudicated.