ICE Follow-up: Is Immigration Slowing?
Last week’s Question of the Week dealt with recent ramped-up efforts by the government to enforce immigration laws, including large-scale raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Is it working? Maybe.
According to data released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of immigrants added to the U.S. last year was down more than 70% — from about 1.8 million in 2006 to about 500,000 in 2007.
Other interesting statistics:
- The number of immigrants in the U.S. is at a record high of more than 38 million.
- States with the largest immigration decreases last year were New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota and Vermont. Cities with the largest decreases included Atlanta, Las Vegas and Oakland.
- Boston, Denver and Phoenix bucked the trend with increased immigration.
- More than 50% of U.S. immigrants are from Latin America and roughly 25% are from Asia, 13% from Europe and 4% from Africa.
- The Census Bureau predicts that by the year 2042 Caucasians will no longer constitute the majority of the U.S. population.
Both presidential candidates support comprehensive immigration reform packages with increased enforcement and a route to citizenship for many illegal immigrants.
