Growth of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population Slows

WASHINGTON - There were 11.9 million unauthorized immigrants living in the United States in March 2008, according to a Pew Hispanic Center analysis released today, "Trends in Unauthorized Immigration: Undocumented Inflow Now Trails Legal Inflow." The size of the unauthorized population appears to have declined since 2007, but this finding is inconclusive because of the margin of error in these estimates.
However, it is clear that the unauthorized immigrant population grew more slowly in the period from 2005 to 2008 than it did earlier in the decade. The inflows of unauthorized immigrants averaged 800,000 a year from 2000 to 2004, but fell to 500,000 a year for 2005 to 2008 with a decreasing year-to-year trend.
The inflow of immigrants who are undocumented also fell below that of immigrants who are legal permanent residents from 2005 to 2008. That reverses a trend that began a decade ago.
Nonetheless, the size of the unauthorized population has increased by more than 40% since 2000, when it was 8.4 million. In 2005, the Pew Hispanic Center estimated there were 11.1 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. The most recent estimate, 11.9 million, indicates that unauthorized immigrants make up 4% of the U.S. population.

Other major findings include:
• Undocumented immigrants make up 30% of the nation's foreign-born population of more than 39 million people.
• The vast majority of undocumented immigrants -- four-in-five -- come from Latin American countries.
• The number of unauthorized immigrants from Mexico, 7 million, appears to have leveled off since 2007.
• The number of undocumented immigrants from other Latin American nations has fallen since 2007.
The report is available on the Center's website, www.pewhispanic.org.