Sunday, September 14, 2008

Popular Publications from CIS.org


Illegal Immigration

Popular Publications: From www.CIS.org = Center for Immigration Studies

The High Cost of Cheap Labor: Illegal Immigration and the Federal BudgetBy Steven A. Camarota August 2004Backgrounders and Reports

Homeward Bound: Recent Immigration Enforcement and the Decline in the Illegal Alien PopulationBy Steven A. Camarota, Karen Jensenius July 2008Backgrounders and Reports

No Coyote Needed: U.S. Visas Still an Easy Ticket in Developing CountriesBy David SeminaraMarch 2008Backgrounders and Reports

OverviewIn our analysis of the March 2007 Current Population Survey, we estimate that there are approximately 11.3 million illegal aliens living in the United States. Our estimate for the number of illegals included in the 2000 CPS is 7.3 million. This means that the illegal-alien population grew by four million between 2000 and 2007. We estimate that 57 percent of the illegal alien population comes from Mexico, 11 percent from Central America, 9 percent from East Asia, 8 percent from South America, and Europe and the Caribbean account for 4 percent. Of all immigrants from Mexico, 55 percent are illegal; for Central Americans it is 47 percent; and it is 33 percent for South Americans. It should be noted that these estimates only include illegal aliens captured by the March CPS, not those missed by the survey.

The two "magnets" which attract illegal aliens are jobs and family connections. The typical Mexican worker earns one-tenth his American counterpart, and numerous American businesses are willing to hire cheap, compliant labor from abroad. In addition, communities of recently arrived legal immigrants help create immigration networks used by illegal aliens and serve as incubators for illegal immigration, providing jobs, housing, and entree to America for illegal alien relatives and fellow countrymen.


A strategy of attrition through enforcement could reduce the illegal population by as many as 1.5 million illegal aliens each year. Elements of attrition through enforcement include: mandatory workplace verification of immigration status; measures to curb misuse of Social Security and IRS identification numbers; partnerships with state and local law enforcement officials; expanded entry-exit recording under US-VISIT; increased non-criminal removals; and state and local laws to discourage illegal settlement. With this strategy it would not be necessary to deport every single illegal alien, as many would find it difficult to work and live in the United States and make the rational decision to self-deport.

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