A Portrait of Unauthorized Immigrants in the United States

The Pew Hispanic Center in a report by Jeffrey S. Passel and D'vera Cohn finds that the nation's 11.9 million unauthorized immigrants (a slight decrease from previous estimates, perhaps dur to the economy) are more geographically dispersed than in the past. Undocumented immigrants also are more likely than either U.S. born residents or legal immigrants to live in a household with children, a growing share of whom--73%--are U.S. born citizens. The new report also finds that the recent rapid growth in the undocumented immigrant labor force has come to a halt, and estimates that the nation's 8.3 million unauthorized immigrant workers in March 2008 made up 5.4% of the labor force.

KJ