US Undocumented Population Drops Below 11 Million in 2014, with Continued Declines in the Mexican Undocumented Population
The Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS) has released a report documenting a decrease in the undocumented population in the United States. Major findings in the report include:
• The total US undocumented population continued to decline in 2014, and has fallen by more than a million since 2008;
• The undocumented population in the majority of US states declined after 2008; however, eleven states reached their maximum population in 2014, including Texas;
• With the exception of Alabama and possibly Georgia, restrictive state immigration laws in 2010-2011 had little impact on undocumented population trends;
• The Mexican-born undocumented population was about 600,000 smaller in 2014 than it was in 2010;
• About 250,000 fewer undocumented immigrants from Mexico lived in California in 2014 compared to 2010; and
• From 1980 to 2014, the legally resident population from Mexico grew faster than the Mexican undocumented population.
Here is the executive summary of the report:
Undocumented immigration has been a significant political issue in recent years, and is likely to remain so throughout and beyond the presidential election year of 2016. One reason for the high and sustained level of interest in undocumented immigration is the widespread belief that the trend in the undocumented population is ever upward. This paper shows that this belief is mistaken and that, in fact, the undocumented population has been decreasing for more than a half a decade. Other findings of the paper that should inform the immigration debate are the growing naturalized citizen populations in almost every US state and the fact that, since 1980, the legally resident foreign-born population from Mexico has grown faster than the undocumented population from Mexico.
KJ