Steady Count of Illegal Immigrants in the US
May 9th, 2012 by Eric J. Ramos
Illegal immigration has always been an unresolved issue in the US, in spite of it occupying prime spot in every politician’s agenda. Per the estimates of the DHS, there are 11.5 million illegal immigrants (as of January 2011) in the country! There seems to be no significant change in this number when compared to the same in the year 2010.
States playing host to illegal immigrants
Interesting fact in this research, by the DHS, was that, illegal immigrants were reported in large numbers from states that relied primarily on tourism and agriculture. These were the states where job opportunities have been on the rise, in the recent years. Following states play the host for those who are illegally in the United States.
- California – 2.8 million
- Texas – 1.8 million
- Florida – 740,000
These account for half of the total number of illegal immigrant population in the whole of the US. Statistics indicate that the numbers have begun to dwindle in Florida over the past few years.
Apart from these states, New York plays the home for 630,000 illegals and Illinois for 550,000. America’s top 10 states contribute to 73% of the total population of the country’s illegal immigrants.
Categories of people who immigrate illegally to the United States
People who were in the age group of 25 to 34 years contributed the maximum of 32 % to the total illegal immigrant population whereas those above 55 yrs made up the minimum of 4%. Out of the 32% of the total undocumented immigrants in that category, male illegals were 34% and female were 31 %.
Country wise flow of unauthorized immigrants to the United States
Mexico seems to have secured an immovable place at the top of the list with very high figures of about 59 % of the total inflow of illegal immigrants. This is the only country that has a two digit figure of illegals. Others that make up the single digit contribution to the undocumented community are El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, China, Philippines, India, Korea, Ecuador and Vietnam. This is not very surprising as there seems to be no change in this trend over the last decade.
These data are based on the research undertaken by the Michael Hoefer, Nancy Rytina and Bryan Baker for the US Department of Homeland Security ( DHS)
