Fact Sheet 
Immigration

With various proposals for some form of amnesty for illegal aliens being debated in Washington, it is useful to have an idea of the magnitude of the problem. Of course no one knows exactly how many aliens are living and working illegally in the United States because of the illegal nature of their presence, which prevents enumeration.

The 2000 Census, like all previous censuses, made no attempt to determine the immigration status of foreign-born residents. Nevertheless, the results of the Census did contribute to a re-evaluation of the proportion of the illegal alien population. It now appears that independent analysts agree that the illegal alien population numbers between 8.5 and 11 million people.

The Census Bureau issued an estimate in January 2002 that illegal aliens numbered 8,705,421(1). That estimate was based on the discrepancy between the number of foreign-born residents and the number of legally admitted residents.

The release of the latest immigration data indicate that illegal aliens adjusting their status drove "legal" immigration levels to more than one million in fiscal year 2001. With the exception of a one year spike in caused by the illegal alien amnesty of 1986, this is the first time in nearly a century that immigration exceeded the one million mark and the 1,064, 318 people admitted represent a 65% increase in just two years.

Data released in September 2002 reveals some 215,000 illegal aliens living in the U.S. were granted legal status during FY 2001. The number of illegal aliens granted permanent residence under adjustment programs such as 245(i) is an additional 970,000, whose cases are still pending.

*One in five people who became legal U.S. residents in FY 2001 were people who had either entered the country illegally, or remained here after the expiration of a temporary visa. (2)

The Center for Immigration Studies estimated in 1995 that immigration costs U.S. taxpayers $29 billion a year, which is more than the combined budgets of the Department of State, Justice and Interior. These costs include both programs targeted toward immigrants, as well as the increased costs of education, health care, and welfare programs that are used by immigrants.

Every state receives immigration. Mississippi, for example, is not known as a "high impact" state. Yet it has the nation’s fastest growing immigration population (up by 476% since 1990). Other states that are newly experiencing large scale immigration settlement include Colorado (up 136%), North Carolina (up 129%), Oregon (up 115%), Nebraska (up 107%), and Utah (up 102%). (3)

Illegal immigrants receive taxpayer support for their U.S. born children, immunizations, subsidized public health and other programs. In many areas, such as education, the federal government gives matching grants for state expenditures, which means paying twice for the cost of immigration.

Between 1990 and 2000, the U.S. population increased by 13.2% (from 248,709,873 to 281,421,906). According to the Census Bureau, this was 1.4 million more persons than were expected.

Between 1980 and 1990 the U.S. population increased by 9.5% (from 227,156,000 to 248,709,873).

The 2000 Census recorded 31,107,573 foreign born residents in the country. That was 11% of the country’s overall population and an increase of 57.4% above the 1990 foreign born population of 19,767,316 residents. The numerical increase in the foreign born population between 1990 – 2000 was 11.3 million, which demonstrates that the average increase over that period has been more than one million per year.

		1980 Census			1990 Census			2000 Census
1		Mexico	2,199,000		Mexico	4,298,000		Mexico	7,871,000
2		Germany	849,000		Philip.	913,000		China**	1,457,000
3		Canada	843,000		Canada	745,000		Philip.	1,227,000
4		Italy	832,000		Cuba	737,000		India	1,027,000
5		U.K.	669,000		Germany	712,000		Cuba	922,000
6		Cuba	608,000		U.K.	640,000		El Sal.	796,000
7		Philip.	501,000		Italy	581,000		Vietnam	778,000
8		Poland	418,000		Korea	568,000		Korea	715,000
9		Sov. Un.	406,000		Vietnam	543,000		Canada	688,000
10		Korea	290,000		China	530,000		Dom. Rep.	601,000
11		China	286,000		El. Sal.	465,000		Germany	598,000
12		Vietnam	231,000		India	450,000		Jamaica	488,000
		All Others	14,080,000		All Others	19,767,000		All Others	31,108,000

**Includes Hong Kong and Taiwan

Findings from the Center for Immigration Studies concluded from the Census Bureau’s 2000 Current Population Survey (CPS) were:

· 17.6% of all children four years old and younger were born to immigrant mothers.

· 40.1% of immigrants aged 18 and older have become U.S. citizens.

· 44% of immigrants and their children are in poverty or near poverty.

· 30.9% of immigrants and their children do not have health insurance.

· 19.7% of immigrant headed households receive welfare – despite the fact that illegal immigrants are ineligible for welfare.

Costs of Immigration to Taxpayers

Incarceration

Claims by state and local authorities requesting compensation from the federal government in FY 1999 for incarceration expenses of illegal aliens amounted to about $1.5 billion for 25.4 million days (the equivalent of 69,5000 years) of detention. Under the federal State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP), the states received only 39% of their expenses ($582,734,294). This left the states and local jurisdictions with uncompensated outlays of almost $911 million. In 2000, the Department of Justice ceased releasing such expense data. (3).

In July of 2002, the House Judiciary Committee approved H.R. 1452, named the "Family Reunification Act of 2002," that would permit aliens with criminal records to apply for relief from deportation and allow those who have already been deported to return to the U.S. to press their claims. Under a compromise between the bill’s author, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), and Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), aliens convicted of aggravated felonies could be permitted to remain in the U.S. HR 1452, in enacted, would reverse the 1996 legislation that made it easier to deport criminal aliens.

Education

At 53.1 million students, U.S. School enrollment is at an all-time high, exceeding even the record set in 1970 by the baby boomers. In the past decade, enrollment increased by 14%. In a recent report by the Foundation for American Immigration Reform, "No Room to Learn: Immigration and School Overcrowding," FAIR finds:

· Without school age immigrants and the children of immigrants, school enrollment would not have increased at all during the last decade.

· One in every five students has an immigrant parent. One-quarter of these children were foreign born themselves.

· Immigration will account for 96% of the future increase in school age population over the next 50 years.

· The Urban Institute estimates that the cost of educating an estimated 800,000 illegal alien school children in the nations seven states with the highest concentration of illegal aliens was $3.1 billion in 1993, an dup to $4.6 billion in 1996. This estimate does not take into account the additional costs of bilingual education or other special educational needs.

Several states, including California and Texas, (the two largest illegal alien populations) have now enacted or have proposed programs that allow illegal alien college students to pay in-state tuition rates.

Taxpayer funded public education for illegal alien children has been required at the primary and secondary level ever since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Plyer v. Texas in 1982 that such education was required under the equal protection clause of the constitution.

Health Care Costs

Every person born in the United States is an automatic citizen regardless of the status of the parents. Only a few European countries still grant automatic citizenship to newborns.

The 14^th Amendment was added to the Constitution as part of the post Civil War reforms aimed at addressing injustices to African Americans. It states, "all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States." However, when the amendment was crafted, the United States had no immigration policy, thus the authors saw no need to state explicitly, what they thought to be understood. The phrase "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" was intended to exclude from automatic citizenship American born persons whose allegiance to the United States was not complete. In the case of illegal aliens who are temporarily or unlawfully in the United States, but their native country has a claim of allegiance to the child, the completeness of the allegiance to the United States is impaired and logically precludes automatic citizenship.

According to Peter Brimelow, "By not closing this loophole, the federal government in effect rewards law-breakers and punishes those who have chosen to follow the rules and immigrate legally. Allowing illegal aliens to give birth to American citizens, in effect, makes citizenship a license for welfare."(4)

*In 1994, California paid for 74,987 deliveries to illegal alien mothers, at a total cost of $215.2 million (an average of $2,842 per delivery). Illegal alien mothers accounted for 36% of all Medi-Cal funded births in California that year.

Terrorism

Even in light of the fact that all 19 high-jackers of 9/11 were of Middle Eastern descent and the current war on terrorism, the U.S. continues to receive both legal and illegal immigrants from the region. In a newly released report (5), the Census Bureau estimated that perhaps 115,000 people from the Middle Eastern countries live in the United States illegally. These figures do not include North African countries such as Egypt and Algeria, nor does it include Pakistan. Africa as a whole, including Sub-Saharan Africa, accounts for perhaps 243,000 illegals, according to the Census Report.

The Prucol Loophole

Some think that illegal aliens cannot receive welfare benefits, but they can, as a result of a provision known as PRUCOL (Permanently Residing Under the Color of Law). PRUCOL means a status that has the appearance of, but not the status of, a legal right. That is not a status created by legislation, but a status created by the courts, which cannot Constitutionally make law.

This designation, created by federal agencies in conjunction with the courts, applies to four federal programs to determine whether an illegal alien is eligible for benefits:

1. Aid to Families with Dependant Children (AFDC);
2. Supplemental Security Income (SSI);
3. Medicaid, and
4. Unemployment Insurance benefits.

Examples of illegal aliens who might qualify as PRUCOL include:

Aliens who have been here more than twenty years;

Aliens who have been granted stays of deportation by the courts;

Aliens who are not being deported because of U.S. citizen children;

Aliens whom, for political reasons, the government is not deporting (such as Salvadorans and Cubans). (6)

References:

1. United States Census Bureau, 2002 Census Report
2. Federation for American Immigration Reform, News release # 07412209.
3. Federation for American Immigration Reform, News release # 042us604.
4. Peter Brimelow, National Review, April 7, 1997.
5. Center for Immigration Studies report: Census Bureau: Over 100,000 Illegal Aliens From the Middle East, January 22, 2002
6. Federation for American Immigration Reform, Issue Brief #04107604.