The number of illegal immigrants in the US, after peaking at 12 million in 2007, fell to about 11.1 million last yaer, the first clear decline in two decades, according to a report published on Wednesday by the Pew Hispanic Center.
The reduction came primarily from decreases among illegal immigrants from Latin American countries other than Mexico, the report found. The number of Mexicans living in the US without legal immigration status did not change significantly from 2007 to last year. Some 7 million Mexicans make up about 60 percent of all illegal immigrants, still by far the largest national group, the Pew Center said.
The report is based on census data from March last year the most recent census sample that is detailed enough for Pew demographers to estimate the statistically elusive population of illegal immigrants. The figures show that more than a year of recession in the US economy, coupled with intensifying immigration enforcement at the Southwest border and in workplaces around the country, brought a reduction of at least 900,000 illegal immigrants.
However, the figure that may be most sobering to all sides in the increasingly contentious immigration debate is the estimate that more than 11 million illegal immigrants remain here.
The report shows that despite myriad pressures, there was no mass exodus of those immigrants to their home countries, especially not to Mexico.
Instead, the report confirms earlier findings by US and Mexican demographers that the flow of Mexicans coming to the US illegally to look for work had slowed sharply.
Florida, Virginia and Nevada showed the steepest declines — three states that saw booms followed by busts in home construction, an industry that attracts illegal immigrant workers.
The Pew report covers the first year and a half of the recession, which economists say began in late 2007.
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