Scott Powers
A new study released Monday estimates that there now are 61 million immigrants and U.S.-born children of immigrants in the United States and Donald Trump has responded by calling immigration out of control.
The Center for Immigration Studies, an organization committed to limiting immigration to the United States, used Census data and surveys to conclude that there are not just 61 million immigrants and their U.S.-born children but that the numbers have risen dramatically since 2000 and exploded since 1970.
“Almost one in five U.S. residents is now an immigrant or minor child of an immigrant parent,” CIS Director of Research Steve Camarota stated in a background paper on the study the center released Monday. “The numbers represent a complete break with the recent history of the United States. As recently as 1970, there were only 13.5 million immigrants and their young children in the country, accounting for one in 15 U.S. residents.”
Trump, who has based much of his campaign on criticizing and opposing most of America’s immigration policies and responses to illegal immigration, seized on the report and used it Monday to criticize his two leading Republican opponents in the presidential race, U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas.
“Record rates of immigration have produced lower wages and higher unemployment for U.S. workers, Trump stated in a news release from his campaign, adding, “Yet, Senators Cruz and Rubio have led the charge for even higher immigration rates – a policy supported by only 7 percent of the Republican electorate.”
The CIS study extrapolated its numbers from several Census Bureau sources, so they are estimates, not firm numbers. And they do not use consistent souces from year to year because the Census Bureau has changed its surveys over the decades.
The current estimates were drawn from the Census’ December, 2015, Current Population Survey, which has a limited survey pool.
Within the the 61 million total, the center estimated the United States has 15.7 million illegal immigrants and children of illegal immigrants, though some of those children may be of mixed parents – illegal immigrants and citizens.
“Our best estimate is that in 2015 there were 5.1 million children with at least one illegal immigrant parent. Taken together, the best available evidence indicates that there were a total of 15.7 million illegal immigrants and their U.S.-born children in the adjusted December 2015,” Camarota wrote.
That means there are about 45.3 million legal immigrants and their U.S.-born children, making up about three-fourths of the country’s current population of immigrants.
Florida, according to the study, has 5.2 million immigrants (both legal and illegal) and U.S.-born children of immigrants. That accounts for about 25 percent of the state’s population, a growth from about 21 percent in 2000 and 10 percent in 1970.
Florida has the fourth-highest number of immigrants in the country, following California, Texas and New York, and the fifth-highest percentage of immigrants in its population.
