The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) recently released a study indicating that 5 million immigrants are currently in the United States illegally, and an estimated 275,000 new illegal immigrants enter and stay each year. According to the study, nearly 85 percent (4,250,000) of the illegal immigrant population is concentrated in just seven states - Texas, California, New Jersey, Florida, Illinois, New York and Arizona. Nearly 60 percent (2.9 million) of the current population crossed the border clandestinely while 40 percent (2.1 million) crossed with legal documentation such as a visa and have overstayed their time limit. 75 percent in California and Texas crossed the border without legal paperwork and 90 percent of those in New York state have expired visas. The INS report estimates that over half, or 2.7 million illegal immigrants, are from Mexico. Second in line is Asia with an estimated 365,000 illegal immigrants in the U.S. The INS estimated that 275,000 undocumented immigrants are entering the United States annually, down less than 10 percent from an estimated 300,000 reported by the INS just five years ago. In contrast the INS budget has jumped from $1.5 billion in 1993 to $3.1 billion in 1997, a 105 percent increase.
Another study recently issued by the Public Policy Institute in California found that half of all Mexican immigrants (legal and illegal) in the United States return home within two years and fewer than one-third stay for ten years, giving the new Welfare Reform changes, which require immigrants to have worked legally in the United States for ten years before qualifying for any public benefits, potentially less of an effect. Further, the study found that illegal immigrants, who are barred from receiving any public assistance, usually return to Mexico sooner than those with legal status. 51 percent of illegal immigrants returned home within two years according to the study, while twenty percent stayed more than 10 years. And 60 percent of all immigrants who do not find jobs return to Mexico within one year. Only 9.5% of illegal immigrants who were parents had given birth to their children in the United States, meaning that the majority of their children were not eligible for welfare benefits. According to a Los Angeles Times report, about 6.7 million Mexican-born people live in the United States with half of all Mexican immigrants residing in California. The study estimated that 504,000 documented and undocumented immigrants moved to the United States each year and that 27 percent or 137,000 stay longer than 10 years. The study was based on data gathered between 1982 and 1996 by the Mexican Migration Project, an independent research effort involving 42,000 surveys of households in 31 towns from six states in western Mexico that are considered to be the major sources of immigrants to California.
Sources: El Paso Times, Los Angeles Times, AP on-line