The number of illegal immigrants in the US has fallen by seven percent in 2009, to 10.8 million, coinciding with the country's financial crisis, a Department of Homeland Security report has stated.
The majority of the country's illegal immigrants come from Latin America, specifically- with 62 percent from Mexico (6.7 million), followed by those from El Salvador (530,000), Guatemala (480,000) and Honduras (320,000).
Together with Filipinos (270,000), Latin Americans accounted for 85 percent of the total illegal immigrants in the United States in 2009, the Department of Homeland Security report said.
"The number of unauthorized residents declined by 1.0 million between 2007 and 2009, coincident with the US economic downturn," said the report, based on census data and extrapolations from the total foreign population in the US.
Of the nearly 11 million undocumented people in the United States in January 2009, 37 percent, or approximately four million, arrived since January 2000, 44 percent since the 1990s and 19 percent since the 1980s, the report stated.
The cutoff date of January 1, 2021 in the DHS's estimated tally of illegal immigrants corresponds to a grandfather clause in the 1986 US immigration reform law that extended residency to anybody living in the United States prior to that date.
In overall numbers, a little more than 31 million foreigners were living in the United States, legally and illegally, in January 2009, the report said.
California was the state with the most illegal immigrants, 2.6 million, followed by Texas with 1.7 million and Florida with 720,000.
"Between 2000 and 2009, the Mexican-born unauthorized immigrant population increased by 2.0 million or 42 percent," said the report, confirming earlier independent studies of that nationality.
However, the biggest jump in illegal immigrants from a single country went to Honduras, and their number almost doubled (a 95 percent increase) in the past decade.
Beside the US and global financial crisis, other reasons that the report inferred for the drop in the undocumented population include tougher border enforcement and a national crackdown on illegal immigrants.
Since his inauguration a year ago, US President Barack Obama has been prodding Congress to take up immigration reform seriously, after two failed attempts in 2006 and 2007.
Source
NVARSappointment.com
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