DHS: Undocumented Population Down, Recession Looms Large

The Department of Homeland Security has released its latest population estimates of the undocumented population in the United States:  “In summary, DHS estimates that the unauthorized immigrant population living in the United States decreased to 10.8 million in January 2009 from 11.6 million in January 2008. Between 2000 and 2009, the unauthorized population grew by 27 percent. Of all unauthorized immigrants living in the United States in 2009, 63 percent entered before 2000, and 62 percent were from Mexico.”  (emphasis added).

Given that the undocumented population rose sharply before the recession hit and decreased after, it certainly appears that the drying up of jobs — not the increase in border enforcement (which began in the early 1990s), increases in detention (beginning in 1996), or the heavy duty immigration restrictions that immediately followed September 11, 2001 — has had the biggest impact on reducing the undocumented population in the United States.  This should give us a good idea of what makes undocumented immigration tick.

KJ