facts and nonpartisan perspectives on the issues

IN THIS ISSUE

Unauthorized Immigrants

With the Democratic nomination still up for grabs, the candidates are refocusing on Texas, where immigration will be a key issue and Latino voters a key constituency. Among Republicans, the subject has sparked fierce fighting, as McCain courts the Latino vote and fends off critics who say he is too soft on illegal immigration. All three frontrunners have supported reform that offers unauthorized immigrants a path to legal status. But the issue is still controversial and emotional. Urban Institute researchers can provide nationwide and local facts and perspectives on the unauthorized population to help frame the debate.

KEY FACTS

• There are 11–12 million unauthorized immigrants (adults and children) in the country, representing about 30 percent of the total foreign-born population in 2007.
• Five million children have unauthorized parents; two-thirds of these children are U.S.-born citizens.
• All but 22 percent of unauthorized immigrants come from Mexico and Central America.
• California has the largest unauthorized population of any state—2.5 million or almost a quarter of the nation’s unauthorized immigrants in 2005. Texas has the second-largest population, about 1.5 million unauthorized immigrants in 2005.
• The unauthorized population is growing fastest in states in the Southwest (especially in Arizona, Colorado, and Nevada), and in the Southeast (especially in Arkansas, Georgia, and North Carolina).
• About 7 million unauthorized immigrants are employed—representing about 5 percent of U.S. workers in 2005. Virtually all unauthorized men work.
• The number of unauthorized immigrants arrested at workplaces increased from about 500 in 2002 to almost 5,000 in 2007, but far less than 1 percent of unauthorized workers have been arrested.
• The U.S. Social Security Administration has estimated that three-quarters of unauthorized workers pay payroll taxes and that they contribute $6–7 billion annually in Social Security funds that they can't claim.

Additional analysis is available in UI reports:

• Paying the Price: The Impact of Immigration Raids on America’s Children, Randolph Capps, Rosa Maria Castaneda, Ajay Chaudry, and Robert Santos
• The Characteristics of Unauthorized Immigrants in California, Los Angeles County, and the United States, Randolph Capps and Karina Fortuny
• A Profile of Immigrants in Arkansas, Randolph Capps, Everett Henderson, John D. Kasarda, James H. Johnson, Jr., Stephen J. Appold, Derrek L. Croney, Donald J. Hernandez, and Michael E. Fix
• Trends in the Low-Wage Immigrant Labor Force, 2000–2005, Randolph Capps, Karina Fortuny, and Michael E. Fix

Decision Points '08 is published weekly by the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan social and economic research organization.
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