October 31, 2008
Department of Homeland Security report
DHS Office of Immigration Statistics
Estimates of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population Residing in the United States: January 2007
MICHAEL HOEFER, NANCY RYTINA, AND BRYAN C. BAKER
This report provides estimates of the number of unauthorized immigrants residing in the United States as of January 2007 by period of entry, region and country of origin, state of residence, age and gender.
In summary, an estimated 11.8 million unauthorized immigrants were living in the United States in January 2007 compared to 8.5 million in 2000 (Hoefer, Rytina, and Campbell, 2006). Between 2000 and 2007, the unauthorized population increased 3.3 million; the annual average increase during this period was 470,000. Nearly 4.2 million (35 percent) of the total 11.8 million unauthorized residents in 2007 had entered in 2000 or later. An estimated 7.0 million (59 percent) were from Mexico.
DEFINITIONS
Legal Residents
The legally resident immigrant population as defined for these estimates includes all persons who were granted lawful permanent residence; granted asylee status; admitted as refugees; or admitted as nonimmigrants for a temporary stay in the United States and not required to leave by January 1, 2007. Nonimmigrant residents refer to certain aliens who were legally admitted temporarily to the United States for specified time periods such as students and temporary workers.
Unauthorized Residents
The unauthorized resident immigrant population is defined as all foreign-born non-citizens who are not legal residents. Unauthorized residents refer to foreign-born persons who entered the United States without inspection or were admitted temporarily and stayed past the date they were required to leave.
Unauthorized immigrants applying for adjustment to lawful permanent residence under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) Section 245(i) are unauthorized until they have been granted LPR status, even though they may have been authorized to work. Similarly, unauthorized immigrants who have applied for asylum or Temporary Protected Status (TPS) are considered to be unauthorized residents. Persons who are beneficiaries of TPS are technically not unauthorized but were excluded from the legally resident immigrant population because data are unavailable in sufficient detail to estimate this population.
METHODOLOGY AND DATA
Two populations are estimated in order to derive the unauthorized population estimates:
1) the total-foreign born population living in the United States on January 1, 2007, and
2) the legally resident population on the same date. The unauthorized population is equal to 1) minus 2).
It was assumed that foreign-born residents who had entered the United States prior to 1980 were legally resident since most were eligible for legal permanent resident status.1
Therefore, the starting point for the estimates was January 1, 1980. The steps involved in estimating the components of each population are shown in Appendix 1.
Full PDF Report from the Department of Homeland Security
