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AP: U.S. Undocumented Immigrant Numbers Surge

Thread ID: 17442 | Posts: 8 | Started: 2005-03-21

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Jack Cassidy [OP]

2005-03-21 17:12 | User Profile

[color=blue][url="http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&u=/ap/20050321/ap_on_re_us/undocumented_immigrants&printer=1"][font=Times New Roman][size=3][color=#800080]http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&u=/ap/20050321/ap_on_re_us/undocumented_immigrants&printer=1[/color][/size][/font][/url]<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />[/color]

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**[color=black][font=Arial]U.S.[/font][/color]****[color=black][font=Arial] Undocumented Immigrant Numbers Surge [/font][/color]** [color=black][font=Arial] [/font][/color]*[color=black][font=Arial]By GENARO C. ARMAS, Associated Press Writer[/font][/color]*[color=black][font=Arial] [/font][/color] [color=black][font=Arial]WASHINGTON[/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial] - [/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial]The nation's undocumented immigrant population surged to 10.3 million last year, spurred largely since 2000 by the arrivals of unauthorized Mexicans in the [/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial]United States[/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial], a report being released Monday says. [/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial][/font][/color] [color=black][font=Arial]The population of undocumented residents in the [/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial]United States[/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial] increased by about 23 percent from 8.4 million in the four-year period ending last March, according to the analysis of government data by the [/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial]Pew[/font][/color][color=black][/color][color=black][font=Arial]Hispanic[/font][/color][color=black][/color][color=black][font=Arial]Center[/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial], a private research group. [/font][/color] [color=black][font=Arial]That equates to a net increase of roughly 485,000 per year between 2000 and 2004. The estimate was derived by subtracting the number of unauthorized immigrants who leave the [/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial]United States[/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial], die or acquire legal status from the number of new undocumented immigrants that arrive each year. [/font][/color] [color=black][font=Arial]The prospect of better job opportunities in the United States than in their native countries remains a powerful lure for many immigrants, said Pew center director Roberto Suro, pointing to a reason often cited by other researchers. [/font][/color] [color=black][font=Arial]"The border has been the focus of federal efforts (to cut illegal entry) and has not produced a reduction in flow. Certainly that's an indication of ongoing demand," he said. [/font][/color] [color=black][font=Arial]The population is growing at a similar pace as in the late 1990s even though the [/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial]U.S.[/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial] economy today isn't as robust, Suro said. [/font][/color] [color=black][font=Arial]Assuming the flow of undocumented immigrants into the country hasn't abated since March 2004, the population is likely near 11 million now. [/font][/color] [color=black][font=Arial]The report considered "undocumented" immigrants primarily as those here illegally; those in the [/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial]United States[/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial] on expired visas; or those who violated the terms of their admission in other ways. [/font][/color] [color=black][font=Arial]Also included are a small percentage of immigrants who may have legal authorization to be in the [/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial]United States[/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial], including those with temporary protected status and those applying to seek asylum. [/font][/color] [color=black][font=Arial]Mexicans by far remain the largest group of undocumented migrants at 5.9 million, or about 57 percent of the March 2004 estimate. Some 2.5 million others, or 24 percent, are from other Latin American countries. [/font][/color] [color=black][font=Arial]Overall, the [/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial]U.S.[/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial] foreign-born population, regardless of legal status, was 35.7 million last year. Those of Mexican descent again comprised the largest group — more than 11 million, or 32 percent. [/font][/color] [color=black][font=Arial]Controlling the flow of immigrants over the porous U.S.-Mexico border will be a central topic of discussion when Mexican President Vicente Fox meets with President Bush in Texas on Wednesday. [/font][/color] [color=black][font=Arial]The number of [/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial]U.S.[/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial] residents with Mexican backgrounds has increased by nearly 600,000 annually since 2000, with more than 80 percent of the new arrivals here with proper documentation, the Pew center estimated. [/font][/color] [color=black][font=Arial]Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other government officials have raised concerns about border security amid recent intelligence that al-Qaida terrorists have considered using the Southwest border to infiltrate the United States. [/font][/color] [color=black][font=Arial]Bush, meanwhile, has also promoted a guest-worker program that would allow migrants to work in the [/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial]United States[/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial] for a limited time as long as they have a job lined up. [/font][/color] [color=black][font=Arial]Critics of the plan argue that such workers drive down wages because they often work for lower pay and fewer benefits that native-born residents. [/font][/color] [color=black][font=Arial]"The best way to approach this is attrition by enforcement — better enforcement of the borders and of worksites," said Steve Camorata of the private Center for Immigration Studies. [/font][/color] [color=black][font=Arial]The Pew report found undocumented immigrants increasingly fanning out beyond longtime destination for foreign-born residents. In 1990, 88 percent of the undocumented population lived in six states — [/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial]California[/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial], [/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial]New York[/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial], [/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial]Texas[/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial], [/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial]Illinois[/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial], [/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial]Florida[/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial] and [/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial]New Jersey[/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial]. [/font][/color] [color=black][font=Arial]By 2004, those states accounted for 61 percent of the nation's undocumented population. The top state is [/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial]California[/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial], where nearly one-quarter of the undocumented reside, followed by [/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial]Texas[/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial] (14 percent) and [/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial]Florida[/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial] (9 percent). [/font][/color] [color=black][font=Arial]Next on the list were [/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial]New York[/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial] (7 percent), [/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial]Arizona[/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial] (5 percent), [/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial]Illinois[/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial] (4 percent), [/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial]New Jersey[/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial] (4 percent), and [/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial]North Carolina[/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial] (3 percent). [/font][/color] [color=black][font=Arial]Arizona[/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial] and [/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial]North Carolina[/font][/color][color=black][font=Arial] are two of the fastest-growing states in the nation overall and have metropolitan areas booming with new construction, restaurants and service-oriented businesses — job sectors that often hire undocumented workers. [/font][/color] --- ### Jack Cassidy *2005-03-21 17:17* | [User Profile](/od/user/1058) Our country is being invaded by the millions and consequently the survival America as we know it is threatened. Why can't we use our military to protect America? Oh yeah, that's right, they are on the other side of the world fighting for other countries, spending upwards of 1/5 of a trillion dollars to make these foreign lands better. --- ### Sertorius *2005-03-21 17:18* | [User Profile](/od/user/26) AP is just a little behind the curve on this one. It is more like 20 million illegals. --- ### Jack Cassidy *2005-03-21 17:28* | [User Profile](/od/user/1058) [QUOTE=Sertorius]AP is just a little behind the curve on this one. It is more like 20 million illegals.[/QUOTE] From what I understand most illegal immigrants come through airports. And my area is evidence of that. Sertorius, I don't know about your area, but around 20 years ago the area where I live was about 99% white middle-class suburban (20-30 miles outside of Washington, DC). Now you rarely see whites. They are there, but they aren't having 5 kids and the mud flood has drowned them out. I go into any local store in the nearby strip mall (Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Target) and you see nothing but East Indians, Thai, Chinese, Africans, Middle Easterners, and of course hispanics. Mark my words, in 20 years all you guys will get to the point where you are relieved to see an hispanic or American black. --- ### albion *2005-03-22 01:43* | [User Profile](/od/user/1350) above story also in The Guardian at: [url="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0%2C1282%2C-4882086%2C00.html"]http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0%2C1282%2C-4882086%2C00.html[/url]
[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif][size=2]Pew Hispanic Center: [url]http://www.pewhispanic.org[/url] [/size][/font]
--- ### Sojourner *2005-03-23 18:28* | [User Profile](/od/user/576) [B]'They take jobs Americans won't take'[/B] By Alfred Robert Casimiro/ Wake Up, Weymouth Wednesday, March 23, 2005 "They take jobs Americans won't take." A business owner in Columbian Square made this comment to me as he tried to justify the hiring of illegal aliens. People who make these comments may not understand the growing problem with immigration in this country, especially the problems created with illegal aliens. If they did, this attitude might not be so prevalent. Let's take a brief look at the current immigration picture. We are in the fourth decade of what can be termed our Second Great Wave of Immigration, and we are being swamped by a runaway immigration policy that threatens to undermine the cohesiveness, sovereignty, unity, and stability of this nation. Our population, which stands at 295 million, is projected to reach 420 million by the year 2050. Legal immigration alone accounts for more than two thirds of that growth. If that isn't alarming, now add the estimated 500,000 to two million illegal aliens coming into the country each year, and our population is projected to be half a billion by the year 2050. With the added number of illegal aliens, fully 90% of our population increase is coming from this increasingly unsustainable level of immigration. And you think we have traffic problems now? The first Great Wave of Immigration was from 1880 to 1924, and ended with The Immigration Act of 1924 that imposed permanent immigration quotas. Sharp reductions in immigration were needed because there were too many new arrivals to our shores in too short a period of time for effective assimilation to take place. The number of immigrants had peaked at 1,285,349 in 1907; was down to 706,896 in 1924 and dropped to 294,314 the next year. The Depression that started with the stock market crash of 1929, along with additional quotas imposed in 1929, reduced the number of legal immigrants down to 23,068 in 1933, the lowest number in the decade of the 1930's. My family history is tucked away in those figures. My paternal grandparents, Antonio and Maria Tavares Casmiro (the first "i" was left out on my father's birth certificate), emigrated from Portugal to Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1906. My father was born in Plymouth in 1912. My grandfather was a house painter. My maternal grandmother, Bertha Boyer Paquette, came to Massachusetts from Quebec, Canada during that period and married Albert Paquette, a first generation French-Canadian from Granby, Massachusetts. My grandfather Paquette prospered as a blacksmith, but saw his business wiped out when the automobile came along, and the horse and carriage was replaced by the horseless carriage. He was downsized; fortunately, he was not outsourced, as might happen in today's global economy. My late aunt Anita researched the family tree and said that we came from French royalty and that the actor Charles Boyer was a distant relative. Considering what happened to Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI, and the fact that Charles Boyer committed suicide, I think I will concentrate on my Portuguese ancestors. They may be untitled, but I like the higher life expectancy on that side of the family. The foreign-born population now stands at 33 million, 11% of our population. It is time to reduce our level of legal immigration to 250,000 to 300,000 per year from the current average of 900,000 per year. What about the estimated 11 million illegal aliens in this country? They are not, by the way, "undocumented immigrants." This term was crafted by "Open borders" advocates in an attempt to de-stigmatize what are criminal violations of federal law. The term "undocumented immigrant" is, actually, an oxymoron. "Undocumented" refers to someone without proper papers or with false papers, making them illegal. Immigration refers to people who come here legally for the purpose of staying here permanently. [B]So, an "undocumented immigrant" is an illegal legal, an oxymoron. [/B] But this is the way the protectors of illegal aliens have twisted the language over the past decade and a half in their attempt to legitimize those who commit criminal acts by violating our borders. This is changing, however, as even the Boston Globe used the term "Illegal Immigrant" in one of their lead editorials. Another "myth" about illegal aliens is that they make a significant contribution to this nation. When this is looked at in detail, the exact opposite is seen to be true. Illegal aliens provide no benefit to our nation, to the Commonwealth, or to our community. A recent report by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), a Washington-based immigration research organization, examined the effect of illegal aliens on the federal treasury. They found that illegal aliens are a net drain on the federal treasury. Their groundbreaking report, "The High Cost of Cheap Labor," shows that illegal alien households cost the federal government $26.3 billion, while paying in only $16 billion in taxes, for a net drain on the federal treasury - meaning you the taxpayer - of $10.3 billion. It would be worse if President Bush's guest worker program became law. The drain on the treasury would be far greater, with the net cost increasing from $10.3 billion to $29 billion. Additionally, illegal aliens lower the level of wages. Several research organizations, including the National Research Council and CIS, have shown that illegal aliens reduce wages from 3% to 10% in the lower income levels. Another CIS report shows the recent increase in jobs has come at the expense of Americans, as the number of unemployed Americans increased by 2.3 million from March 2000 to March 2004, while the number of employed migrants, including legal immigrants and illegal aliens, increased by 2.3 million. So, who does benefit from hiring illegal aliens? Well, unscrupulous employers who hire illegal aliens in violation of federal law, and the illegal aliens themselves. Of the estimated 11 million illegal aliens, six or more million are working. Of those who are working, close to half, according to the CIS, are paid "under the table." Since illegal aliens cannot get valid social security numbers, those who do give a social security number are giving employers fraudulent numbers. The ones who are paid "off-the-books" are part of the growing underground economy. A recent Barron's article, "Going Underground," puts the underground economy at $970 billion. It is growing at the rate of 5.6 % a year, much faster than the "real economy." It is more than three times as large as it was in 1992, and is up from the $195 billion of 1998. How much is lost in unreported taxes in the underground economy? The IRS calculates that the gap between what they should receive and what they actually receive is $311 billion. The reason behind this, as cited by IRS Commissioner Mark Everson, is in a survey that shows an increasing percentage of Americans think tax cheating is acceptable (an increase from 11% to 17%). That should be troubling to every one. The Barron's article also states that fueling the increase in the underground economy is the nation's "swelling ranks of low-wage illegal immigrants." Unreported wages of illegal aliens are estimated to be $50 billion a year. Illegal aliens who are hired with fraudulent social security numbers may pay withholding taxes, but they likely pay the minimum and underpay what they do owe. Here is what I would say to the business owners who condone the hiring of illegal aliens: What would you do if someone broke into your store, stole money from your cash register and, before leaving, swept the floor and took out the trash? That is precisely the affect illegal aliens have on our nation. They break the law by coming here illegally; about half of the illegal aliens who work do not pay taxes, thereby breaking our tax laws; the other half present invalid social security numbers, probably underpay taxes and cause havoc to the Social Security system because Social Security taxes cannot be applied correctly when the name on record does not match the name of the person whose taxes have been withheld. On top of that, you left door unlocked, inviting them in - wink, wink, nod, nod. So, those who hire illegal aliens, condone it, or otherwise support it, for whatever reason: collective guilt; greed; "noblesse oblige;" desperation; ignorance; misplaced sympathy; must realize that each of these individual actions resulting from any of these reasons add up to a huge problem that is destroying this nation. There are an estimated 11 million illegal aliens in the country - some put it at as high as 20 million - with 8,000 to 10,000 streaming across the border each day. They come here for the jobs. Take away the jobs, and they won't come. A.Robert Casimiro can be reached at [email]arcasimiro@msn.com[/email] [url]http://www2.townonline.com/weymouth/opinion/view.bg?articleid=207860[/url] --- ### Sertorius *2005-03-23 20:11* | [User Profile](/od/user/26) [QUOTE=Jack Cassidy]From what I understand most illegal immigrants come through airports. And my area is evidence of that. Sertorius, I don't know about your area, but around 20 years ago the area where I live was about 99% white middle-class suburban (20-30 miles outside of Washington, DC). Now you rarely see whites. They are there, but they aren't having 5 kids and the mud flood has drowned them out. I go into any local store in the nearby strip mall (Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Target) and you see nothing but East Indians, Thai, Chinese, Africans, Middle Easterners, and of course hispanics. Mark my words, in 20 years all you guys will get to the point where you are relieved to see an hispanic or American black.[/QUOTE] Jack, Too late, we already have the above mentioned groups. Other than American Blacks which I am used to, Atlanta used to be similar to D.C. Most of our illegals here come across the Rio Grande. I don't know how many of the others are illegals. I'd say few for family reunification would take care of that problem for them. --- ### Howard Campbell, Jr. *2005-03-27 01:23* | [User Profile](/od/user/244) [img]http://www.sacredcowburgers.com/parodies/signs_of_the_times.jpg[/img] --- ?>