Illegal Immigration In The United States
July 2024 data for border crossings showed the lowest level of border crossing since September 2020. Between 2007 and 2018, visa overstays have accounted for a larger share of the growth in the illegal immigrant population than illegal border crossings, which have declined considerably from 2000 to 2018. In 2022, only 37% of illegal immigrants were from Mexico, the smallest share on record. El Salvador, India, Guatemala and Honduras were the next four largest countries. As of 2016, approximately two-thirds of illegal adult immigrants had lived in the US for at least a decade. As of 2022, unauthorized immigrants made up 3.3% of the US population, though nearly one-third of those immigrants have temporary permission to be in the United States, such as those in Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.
Opponents of illegal immigration worry about crime, as well as possible social and economic burdens caused by migration. Opponents also insist immigrants enter the United States through a formal process and do not want to reward those bypassing the system.
Research shows that illegal immigrants increase the size of the US economy, contribute to economic growth, enhance the welfare of natives, contribute more in tax revenue than they collect, reduce American firms' incentives to offshore jobs and import foreign-produced goods, and benefit consumers by reducing the prices of goods and services. Economists estimate that legalization of the illegal immigrant population would increase the immigrants' earnings and consumption considerably, and increase US gross domestic product. Most scientific studies have shown that illegal immigrants commit less crime than natives and legal immigrants. Sanctuary cities—which adopt policies designed to avoid prosecuting people solely for being in the country illegally—have no statistically meaningful impact on crime. Research suggests that immigration enforcement has no impact on crime rates.
Definitions
The categories of foreign-born people in the United States are:
- US citizens born outside the United States who are naturalized or citizens by adoption
- Foreign-born non-citizens with current status to reside and/or work in the US (documented)
- Foreign-born non-citizens without current status to reside and/or work in the US (illegal)
- Foreign-born non-citizens who are prohibited from entry (illegal and also inadmissible)
The latter two constitute illegal immigrants: as they have no legal documentation to entitle them to be in the US, they are also referred to as undocumented immigrants or undocumented Americans.
History
Rigorous immigration controls were first enacted with the Page Act of 1875, banning Chinese women, and the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, expanded to all Chinese immigrants.
Supreme Court decisions
Since the late 19th century, various Supreme Court rulings established the Constitutional rights of illegal immigrants. In Yick Wo v. Hopkins (1886), the court ruled that under the Fourteenth Amendment, all people, regardless of "race, of color, or of nationality" have the right to due process and equal protection under the law. A similar ruling of Wong Wing v. US (1896) stated that all persons within the territory of the United States are afforded equal protections under the Fifth Amendment and Sixth Amendment.
A 1904 court decision defined any alien as lacking Constitutional rights when not within the United States.
Legislation
The Naturalization Act of 1906, required immigrants to learn English in order to become citizens. The Immigration Act of 1917 defined aliens with a long list of undesirables, including most Asians. The US had otherwise nearly open borders until the early 20th century, with only 1% rejected from 1890 to 1924, usually because they failed the mental or health exam. While immigration laws during those years were loose, laws limiting naturalization to those of "white" and "African" meant many other immigrants had difficulty acquiring citizenship. These regulations immediately created problems of interpretation – the contentious question of who was and was not "white" vexed even the officials charged with enforcing the law and led to significant criticism. The Union of American Hebrew Congregations noted that under the standing interpretation that Turks, Syrians, Palestinians and Jews were not white, "even Jesus of Nazareth himself" would be excluded from citizenship. As a result, judges and immigration officials often admitted and naturalized technically ineligible people as a form of protest against the laws.
The Immigration Act of 1924 established visa requirements and enacted quotas for immigrants from specific countries, especially with low quotas for Southern and Eastern Europeans. Especially it affected Italians and Jews. It also prohibited all Asians from immigrating. By 1940, administrative and legislative action had loosened racial restrictions on naturalization of immigrants, including a ruling that Mexicans were considered white for immigration and naturalization purposes, and a law permitting the naturalization of "descendants of races indigenous to the Western Hemisphere." The quotas were eased in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952.
The decisive opening came in 1965, a year after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination based on race or national origin. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 abolished the quota system. The 1965 Act also established several new limits to which immigrants would be admissible for permanent residence in the United States. A 1990 act increased the annual immigrant limit to 675,000 per year.
In 1996, Congress debated two immigration bills, one focused on limiting legal immigration and another on illegal immigration. The legal immigration reform bills failed to pass, while the illegal immigration bill was passed in the form of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. President Bill Clinton signed the Act into law and it became effective on April 1, 1997. The key components of the Act included increasing the number of border agents, increasing penalties on those who assisted illegal immigrants into the United States, creating a 10-year re-entry ban on those who had been deported after living in the US illegally for over one year, and expanding the list of crimes that any immigrant (regardless of legal status) could be deported for.
In February 2024 and again in May 2024, Republicans in the Senate blocked a border security bill Biden had pushed for to reduce the number of migrants who can claim asylum at the border and provide more money for Customs and Border Protection officials, asylum officers, immigration judges and scanning technology at the border. It was negotiated in a bipartisan manner and initially looked like it had the votes to pass until Donald Trump opposed it, citing that it would boost Biden's reelection chances. Five senators on the left voted against it for not providing enough relief for migrants already in the United States.
Border controls
As early as 1904, mounted border watchmen were employed by the US Immigration Service to prevent illegal southern border crossings. Texas Rangers were also often employed along the Texas border with Mexico.
The US Border Patrol was also officially created in 1924, with its duties in 1925 broadened to include guarding the sea coast. Illegal entry into the United States became a particular problem during Prohibition, when bootleggers and smugglers would illegally enter the country to transport alcohol.
The debate over illegal immigration has continued amongst the fear of potential terrorist attacks in the wake of the September 11 attacks in 2001 and the lack of an effective Mexico–United States barrier. President Donald Trump enacted a travel ban from seven Muslim-majority countries, which was struck down as unconstitutional and replaced by a narrower version drafted by the Justice Department, which Trump described as "watered down, politically correct" and which was subsequently upheld by the Supreme Court. During his election campaign, Trump promised to make Mexico pay for a new border wall. The Mexican government refused to do so, and US taxpayers paid for the wall. The federal government entered a partial shutdown from December 22, 2018, to January 25, 2019, in a standoff over Trump's demand for $5.7 billion in funding for the wall.
US Marines scandal
In 2020, 24 US Marines were discharged after an investigation over their alleged involvement in drug crimes and a human smuggling operation along the US–Mexico border. The investigation began when US Border Patrol agents arrested two marines for transporting three illegal Mexican immigrants on July 3, 2019. A few weeks later 16 marines and a US Navy sailor were arrested on base during a battalion formation on July 25, 2019. The last arrest occurred on December 2, 2019, when a marine was caught transporting two illegal Chinese immigrants near the border.
The ring leader of the human smuggling operation was identified as Francisco Saul Rojas-Hernandez. Some of the marines in court said Francisco Saul Rojas-Hernandez would pay them $1,000 per person that they helped transport. 8 marines plead guilty, however some of the marines had their charges dropped after a judge said that the arrest of the 16 marines in front of a battalion formation was a violation of their rights. The US Marine Corps still took administrative or judicial action against the 24 marines involved. According to 1st Lieutenant Cameron Edinburgh, one marine received a general discharge under honorable conditions, at least one marine received a dishonorable discharge, two received bad conduct discharges, and 19 received other than honorable discharges. The Navy sailor was also removed from service with a bad conduct discharge.
Profile and demographics
 | This section needs to be updated. The reason given is: https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/immigration-statistics/Pop_Estimate/UnauthImmigrant/unauthorized_immigrant_population_estimates_2015_-_2018.pdf. (May 2024) |
In 2012, an estimated 14 million people live in families in which the head of household or the spouse is in the United States without authorization. Illegal immigrants arriving recently before 2012 tend to be better educated than those who have been in the country a decade or more. A quarter of all immigrants who have arrived in recently before 2012 have at least some college education. Nonetheless, illegal immigrants as a group tend to be less educated than other sections of the US population: 49 percent have not completed high school, compared with 9 percent of native-born Americans and 25 percent of legal immigrants. Illegal immigrants work in many sectors of the US economy. Illegal immigrants have lower incomes than both legal immigrants and native-born Americans, but earnings do increase somewhat the longer an individual is in the country.
Breakdown by state
The following data table shows a spread of distribution of locations where illegal immigrants resided by state, as of 2021.
| State of residence | Estimated population, January 2021 | Percent of total |
|---|---|---|
| All states | 10,500,000 | 100 |
| California | 1,850,000 | 18 |
| Texas | 1,600,000 | 15 |
| Florida | 900,000 | 9 |
| New York | 600,000 | 6 |
| New Jersey | 450,000 | 4 |
| Illinois | 400,000 | 5 |
| Georgia | 350,000 | 3 |
| North Carolina | 325,000 | 3 |
| Massachusetts | 300,000 | 3 |
| Washington | 300,000 | 3 |
| Other states | 3,425,000 | 31 |
Population
From 2005 to 2009, the number of people entering the US illegally every year declined from a yearly average of 850,000 in the early 2000s to 300,000 in 2009, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. The most recent estimates put the number of illegal immigrants at 11 million in 2015, representing 3.4% of the total US population. The population of illegal immigrants peaked in 2007, when it was estimated at 12.2 million and 4% of the total US population. As of 2014, illegal immigrant adults had lived in the US for a median of 13.6 years, with approximately two-thirds having lived in the US for at least a decade. Pew Research estimated in 2017 that there were over seven million illegal immigrants in the US workforce.
Narrowing the discussion to only Mexican nationals, a 2015 study performed by demographers of the University of Texas at San Antonio and the University of New Hampshire found that immigration from Mexico; both legal and illegal, peaked in 2003 and that from the period between 2003 and 2007 to the period of 2008 to 2012, immigration from Mexico decreased 57%. The dean of the College of Public Policy of the University of Texas at San Antonio, Rogelio Saenz, states that lower birth rates and the growing economy in Mexico slowed emigration, creating more jobs for Mexicans. Saenz also states that Mexican immigrants are no longer coming to find jobs but to flee from violence, noting that the majority of those escaping crime "are far more likely to be naturalized US citizens".
According to a 2017 National Bureau of Economic Research paper, "The number of undocumented immigrants has declined in absolute terms, while the overall population of low-skilled, foreign-born workers has remained stable. ... because major source countries for US immigration are now seeing and will continue to see weak growth of the labor supply relative to the United States, future immigration rates of young, low-skilled workers appear unlikely to rebound, whether or not US immigration policies tighten further."
Children
The Pew Hispanic Center determined that according to an analysis of Census Bureau data about 8 percent of children born in the United States in 2008—about 340,000—were offspring of illegal immigrants. (The report classifies a child as offspring of illegal immigrants if either parent is unauthorized.) In total, 4 million US-born children of illegal immigrant parents resided in the country in 2009. These infants are, according to the longstanding administrative interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, United States citizens from birth. Congress has never legislated, nor the Supreme Court specifically ruled on whether babies born to visiting foreign nationals are eligible for automatic US Citizenship. These children are sometimes referred to as anchor babies because of the belief that the mother gave birth in the United States as a way to anchor their family in the US. The provisions of the 1996 immigration law mean that an undocumented parent of a citizen child who entered the country without permission ("illegal entry") would need to leave the United States and wait a number of years before they would be able to apply for a visa to return to the US or gain legal residency on the basis of family reunification, while undocumented parents who legally entered the United States (for example overstaying a visa) can in some cases be sponsored by their adult citizen child for legal residency without necessarily having to leave the country. Additionally, households headed by an undocumented parent are not eligible for many public assistance programs (ex. not eligible for TANF or temporary cash assistance to families with children in extreme poverty, "Obamacare" subsidies for health insurance or expanded Medicaid to working-age low-income adults, public housing, Section 8 housing voucher program) regardless of whether their child is a United States citizen or not, with some exceptions (Medicaid/SCHIP for the US citizen child, SNAP/"foodstamps" on behalf of a US citizen child, the temporarily expanded child-tax credit in 2021–2022, as well as some state and city programs specifically designed to include undocumented residents and their families)
Organized migrant caravans
For several years, Pueblo Sin Fronteras, which means "People Without Borders" has organized an annual part-protest, part-mass migration march, from Honduras, through Mexico, to the United States border, where asylum in the United States is requested. In April 2018, the annual "Stations of the Cross Caravan" saw 1,000 Central Americans trying to reach the United States, prompting President Trump to deem it a threat to national security and announce plans to send the national guard to protect the US border. In October 2018, a second caravan of the year left the city of San Pedro Sula the day after US vice-president, Mike Pence, urged the presidents of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala to persuade their citizens to stay home.
2011–2016 surge in unaccompanied minors from Central America
Over the period 2011–2016, US Border Patrol apprehended 178,825 unaccompanied minors from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. The provisions of the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008, which specifies safe repatriation of unaccompanied children (other than those trafficked for sex or forced labor) from countries which do not have a common border with the United States, such as the nations of Central America other than Mexico, made expeditious deportation of the large number of children from Central America who came to the United States in 2014 difficult and expensive, prompting a call by President Barack Obama for an emergency appropriation of $4 billion and resulting in discussions by the Department of Justice and Congress of how to interpret or revise the law in order to expedite handling large numbers of children under the act.
A 2016 study found that Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which allows illegal immigrants who migrated to the United States before their 16th birthday and prior to June 2007 to temporarily stay, did not significantly impact the number of apprehensions of unaccompanied minors from Central America. Rather, the study stated, "the 2008 Williams Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, along with violence in the originating countries and economic conditions in both the countries of origin and the United States, emerge as some of the key determinants of the recent surge in unaccompanied minors apprehended along the southwest US–Mexico border." According to a 2015 report by the Government Accountability Office, the primary drivers of the surge "were crime and lack of economic opportunity at home. Other reasons included education concerns, desire to rejoin family and aggressive recruiting by smugglers." A 2017 Center for Global Development study stated that violence was the primary driver behind the surge in unaccompanied Central American minors to the United States: an additional 10 homicides in Central America made 6 unaccompanied children flee to the US. The widespread promulgation of false "permiso" rumors by human smugglers, as well as migrant perception of the Obama administration's immigration policies, also played a part in the increase.
2018 family separation policy
In April 2018, then-attorney general of the Trump administration Jeff Sessions announced a family separation policy regarding migrants crossing the US southern border without a visa. Migrants and accompanying family members who had entered the country who were alleged to have entered illegally and were apprehended or turned themselves in to Border Control agents were charged with criminal entry. If these family units had children, they were separated, with adults placed in detention centers to await immigration proceedings and the children in separate facilities or with a relative already in the US. There was widespread condemnation of this policy including that of notable evangelical Christian leaders such as Franklin Graham.
Countries of origin
According to the US Department of Homeland Security, the countries of origin for the largest numbers of illegal immigrants are as follows (as of 2014):
| Country of origin | Raw number | Percent of total |
|---|---|---|
| Mexico | 6,640,000 | 55 |
| El Salvador | 700,000 | 6 |
| Guatemala | 640,000 | 5 |
| India | 430,000 | 4 |
| Honduras | 400,000 | 3 |
| Philippines | 360,000 | 3 |
| China | 270,000 | 2 |
| Korea | 250,000 | 2 |
| Vietnam | 200,000 | 2 |
| Dominican Republic | 180,000 | 1 |
| Other | 2,050,000 | 17 |
According to the Migration Policy Institute, Mexicans represented 53% of the illegal immigrant population. The next largest percentages were from Asia (16%), El Salvador (6%), and Guatemala (5%).
The Urban Institute also estimates "between 65,000 and 75,000 Canadians currently live illegally in the United States."
Trends
In 2017, illegal border crossing arrests hit a 46-year low, and were down 25% from the previous year. NPR stated that immigrants may be less likely to attempt to enter the US illegally because of President Trump's stance on illegal immigration. The majority of illegal immigrants come from Mexico. Studies have shown that 40 million foreign born residents live in the US 11.7 million of that population is illegal. During the 1950s, there were 45,000 documented immigrants from Central America. In the 1960s, this number more than doubled to 100,000. In the decade after, it increased to 134,000. In 2019, after being threatened with punitive tariffs, Mexico agreed to a deal with the US to better stem the flow of migrants passing through the country to enter the US. In September 2019, Mexican foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard stated that immigration to the U.S. through Mexico has decreased significantly, and that this trend is "irreversible. ... It is something that we think will be permanent."
Illegal entry
There are an estimated half million illegal entries into the United States each year. The Pew Hispanic Center estimated that 6–7 million immigrants came to the United States via illegal entry (the rest entering via legal visas allowing a limited stay, but then not leaving when their visa period ended). Illegal border crossings declined considerably from 2000, when 71,000–220,000 migrants were apprehended each month, to 2018 when 20,000–40,000 migrants were apprehended. On October 31, 2023, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testified before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, saying that more than 600,000 people illegally made their way into the United States without being apprehended by border agents during the 2023 fiscal year.
A common means of border crossing is to hire people smugglers to help them across the border. Those operating on the US–Mexico border are known informally as coyotajes (coyotes), and are often part of extensive criminal networks throughout Mexico. Criminal gangs smuggling illegal immigrants from China are known as snakeheads, and charge as much as US$70,000 per person, which immigrants often promise to pay with money they hope to earn in the United States.
At the border, US Customs and Border Protection either takes migrants into custody or releases them into the country. The term "gotaway" is defined by the Department of Homeland Security as "a person who is not turned back or apprehended after making an illegal entry" along a US border. A "gotaway" is recorded when cameras or sensors detect migrants crossing the border, but no one is found, or agents are not available to respond. An unknown number of migrants also escape detection entirely.
Visa overstay
A tourist or traveler is considered a "visa overstay" once they remain in the United States after the time of admission has expired. The time of admission varies greatly from traveler to traveler depending on the visa class into which they were admitted. According to Pew, between 4 and 5.5 million foreigners entered the United States with a legal visa, accounting for between 33 and 48% of the total unauthorized migrant population. Visa overstays tend to be somewhat more educated and better off financially than those who entered the country illegally. In most instances, overstaying a visa is a civil "wrong" and not necessarily a crime, though the person is still subject to deportation for unlawful presence.
To help track visa overstayers the US-VISIT (United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology) program collects and retains biographic, travel, and biometric information, such as photographs and fingerprints, of foreign nationals seeking entry into the United States. It also requires electronic readable passports containing this information.
Visa overstayers mostly enter with tourist or business visas. In 1994, more than half of illegal immigrants were Visa overstayers whereas in 2006, about 45% of illegal immigrants were Visa overstayers.
Those who leave the United States after overstaying their visa for more than 180 days but less than one year, leave and then attempt to apply for readmission will face a three-year ban which will not allow them to re-enter the US for that period. Those who leave the United States after overstaying their visa for a period of one year or longer, leave and then attempt to apply for readmission will face a ten-year ban.
Border Crossing Card violation
A smaller number of illegal immigrants entered the United States legally using the Border Crossing Card, a card that authorizes border crossings into the US for a set amount of time. Border Crossing Card entry accounts for the vast majority of all registered non-immigrant entry into the United States—148 million out of 179 million total—but there is little hard data as to how much of the illegal immigrant population entered in this way. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates the number at around 250,000–500,000.
In the workforce
Illegal immigrants within the workforce are extremely vulnerable due to their status. Being illegal makes these individuals susceptible to exploitation by employers as they are more willing to work through bad conditions and low income jobs—consequently making themselves vulnerable to abuse. Most illegal migrants end up being hired by US employers who exploit the low-wage market produced through immigration. Typical jobs include: janitorial services, clothing production, and household work.
Many illegal Latin American immigrants are inclined to the labor market because of the constraints they have with their job opportunities. This consequently forms an informal sector within the labor market. As a result, this attachment formulates an ethnic identity for this sector.
Congress passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) in 1996. This prevented federal, state, and local public benefits from flowing to illegal immigrants. It also required federal and state agencies to disclose if someone was illegal. Additionally, PRWORA prohibited states from giving professional licenses to those illegal. Though PRWORA prevents public benefits from flowing to illegal immigrants, there are exceptions. Illegal immigrants are still entitled to medical assistance, immunizations, disaster relief, and K-12 education. Despite this, federal law still requires local and state governments to deny benefits to those illegal. The implementation of PRWORA demonstrated the shift towards personal responsibility over "public dependency." There were about eight million illegally present workers in the United States in 2010. These workers were 5% of America's workforce.
Causes
There are however numerous incentives which draw foreigners to the US. Most illegal immigrants who come to America come for better opportunities for employment, a greater degree of freedom, avoidance of political oppression, freedom from violence, famine, and family reunification.
International polls by Gallup in 2021 found that the US remained the most-desired destination country for potential migrants worldwide, followed by Canada and Germany.
Causes by region
In general, illegal immigrants from Mexico and Central America come to the US as they flee from insecurity and violence in their own country (i.e. kidnappings, rape or forced recruitment in gangs), or in search for better economic opportunities. Political corruption, failed institutions, and extortion by gangs contribute contribute to this weak economy and lack of opportunity.
Economic incentives
Economic reasons are one motivation for people to illegally immigrate to the United States. United States employers hire illegal immigrants at wages substantially higher than they could earn in their native countries. A study of illegal immigrants from Mexico in the 1978 harvest season in Oregon showed that they earned six times what they could have earned in Mexico, and even after deducting the costs of the seasonal migration and the additional expense of living in the United States, their net US earnings were three times their Mexican alternative. In the 1960s and early 70s, Mexico's high fertility rate caused a large increase in population. While Mexican population growth has slowed, the large numbers of people born in the 1960s and 70s are now of working age looking for jobs.
According to Judith Gans of the University of Arizona, United States employers are pushed to hire illegal immigrants for three main reasons:
- Global economic change. Global economic change is one cause for illegal immigration because information and transportation technologies now foster internationalized production, distribution and consumption, and labor. This has encouraged many countries to open their economies to outside investment, then increasing the number of low-skilled workers participating in global labor markets and making low-skilled labor markets all more competitive. This and the fact that developed countries have shifted from manufacturing to knowledge-based economies, have realigned economic activity around the world. Labor has become more international as individuals immigrate seeking work, despite governmental attempts to control this migration. Because the United States education system creates relatively few people who either lack a high school diploma or who hold PhDs, there is a shortage of workers needed to fulfill seasonal low-skilled jobs as well as certain high-skilled jobs. To fill these gaps, the United States immigration system attempts to compensate for these shortages by providing for temporary immigration by farm workers and seasonal low-skilled workers, and for permanent immigration by high-skilled workers.
- A lack of legal immigration channels.
- The ineffectiveness of current employer sanctions for illegal hiring. This allows immigrants who are in the country illegally to easily find jobs. There are three reasons for this ineffectiveness—the absence of reliable mechanisms for verifying employment eligibility, inadequate funding of interior immigration enforcement, and the absence of political will due to labor needs to the United States economy. For example, it is unlawful to knowingly hire an illegal immigrant, but according to Judith Gans, there are no reliable mechanisms in place for employers to verify that the immigrants' papers are authentic.
Another reason for the large numbers of illegal immigrants present in the United States is the termination of the Bracero Program. This bi-national program between the US and Mexico existed from 1942 to 1964 to supply qualified Mexican laborers as guest workers to harvest fruits and vegetables in the United States. During World War II, the program benefited the US war effort by replacing citizens' labor in agriculture to serve as soldiers overseas. The program was designed to provide legal flows of qualified laborers to the US Many Mexicans deemed unqualified for the program nonetheless immigrated illegally to the United States to work. In doing that they broke both US and Mexican law. Many workers that took advantage of the program became illegal residents, as they still had incentives to stay in the US despite the fact that they were breaking the law. Although the bracero program had ended, the period still saw a massive spike in migrant population in the US.
Channels for legal immigration
The United States immigration system provides channels for legal, permanent economic immigration, especially for high-skilled workers. For low-skilled workers, temporary or seasonal legal immigration is easier to acquire. The United States immigration system rests on three pillars: family reunification, provision of scarce labor (as in agricultural and specific high-skilled worker sectors), and protecting American workers from competition with foreign workers. The current system sets an overall limit of 675,000 permanent immigrants each year; this limit does not apply to spouses, unmarried minor children or parents of US citizens. Outside of this number for permanent immigrants, 480,000 visas are allotted for those under the family-preference rules and 140,000 are allocated for employment-related preferences. The current system and low number of visas available make it difficult for low-skilled workers to legally and permanently enter the country to work, so illegal entry becomes the way immigrants respond to the lure of jobs with higher wages than what they would be able to find in their current country.
Family reunification
According to demographer Jeffery Passel of the Pew Hispanic Center, the flow of Mexicans to the US has produced a "network effect"—furthering immigration as Mexicans moved to join relatives already in the US.
Further incentives
Lower costs of transportation, communication and information has facilitated illegal immigration. Mexican nationals, in particular, have a very low financial cost of immigration and can easily cross the border. Even if it requires more than one attempt, they have a very low probability of being detected and then deported once they have entered the country. A 2016 research paper published in the American Journal of Sociology hypothesized that border militarization, which took place between 1986 and 2008, in the United States had the unintended consequence of increasing illegal immigration to the United States, as temporary undocumented immigrants who entered the United States seasonally for work opted to stay permanently in the United States and bring their families once it became harder to move across the border regularly.
Mexican federal and state government assistance
| This section needs to be updated. (August 2024) |
The US Department of Homeland Security and some advocacy groups have criticized a program of the government of the state of Yucatán and that of a federal Mexican agency directed to Mexicans migrating to and residing in the United States. They state that the assistance includes advice on how to get across the US border illegally, where to find healthcare, enroll their children in public schools, and send money to Mexico. The Mexican federal government also issues identity cards to Mexicans living outside of Mexico.
- In 2005, the government of Yucatán produced a handbook and DVD about the risks and implications of crossing the US–Mexico border. The guide told immigrants where to find health care, how to get their kids into U.S. schools, and how to send money home. Officials in Yucatán said the guide is a necessity to save lives, but some American groups accused the government of encouraging illegal immigration.
- In 2005, the Mexican government was criticized for distributing a comic book which offers tips to illegal emigrants to the United States. That comic book recommends to illegal immigrants, once they have safely crossed the border, "Don't call attention to yourself. ... Avoid loud parties. ... Don't become involved in fights." The Mexican government defends the guide as an attempt to save lives. "It's kind of like illegal immigration for dummies," said the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, Mark Krikorian. "Promoting safe illegal immigration is not the same as arguing against it". The comic book does state on its last page that the Mexican Government does not promote illegal crossing at all and only encourages visits to the US with all required documentation.
Legal issues
Aliens can be classified as unlawfully present for one of three reasons: entering without authorization or inspection, staying beyond the authorized period after legal entry, or violating the terms of legal entry.
Improper entry
Section 1325 in Title 8 of the United States Code, "Improper entry of alien", provides for a fine, imprisonment, or both for any non-citizen who:
- enters or attempts to enter the United States at any time or place other than as designated by immigration agents, or
- eludes examination or inspection by immigration agents, or
- attempts to enter or obtains entry to the United States by a willfully false or misleading representation or the willful concealment of a material fact.
Section "1325(a) is a regulatory offense, and thus knowledge of alienage is not an element." The maximum prison term is 6 months for the first offense with a misdemeanor and 2 years for any subsequent offense with a felony. In addition to the above criminal fines and penalties, civil fines may also be imposed. Sections 1325(a) and 1326(a), however, do "not apply to an alien whom the Attorney General admits to the United States under section 1157 of this title."
Visa overstay
Unlike illegal entry (which is a criminal offense in the United States), it is not a criminal offense for an alien to enter the United States legally and then overstay his or her visa. A visa overstay is a civil violation dealt with through proceedings in immigration court. A 2006 Pew Hispanic Center study showed that some 45% of unauthorized migrants entered the US legally and then remained in the US without authorization following the expiration of their visa. A person who overstays a visa is subject only to the civil penalties of deportation or removal and restrictions for future applications for another US visa; under provisions of Section 212 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended by 1996 legislation, an alien who "voluntarily departs the United States after being unlawfully present for more than 180 consecutive days but less than 1 year" is subject to a three-year bar to readmission to the United States, and an alien who "departs (voluntarily or involuntarily) the United States after being unlawfully present for 1 consecutive year or more" is subject to a ten-year bar to readmission to the United States.
Since 2007, visa overstays have accounted for a larger share of the growth in the illegal immigrant population than illegal border crossings. In 2019, a Center for Migration Studies of New York study found that for the seventh consecutive year, the number of visa overstays significantly surpassed the number of unauthorized border crossings; "from 2016-2017, people who overstayed their visas accounted for 62 percent of the newly undocumented, while 38 percent had crossed a border illegally." Some visa overstays occur unwittingly or inadvertently. In other cases, visa-holders enter the United States without the intention to do so, but ultimately decide to do so due to extenuating circumstances, such as dangers in their home countries.
Federal versus state role
The federal government has primary responsibility for immigration enforcement in the United States.
Assistance from state and local police for immigration enforcement has been controversial and legally complicated in various ways. In jurisdictions with majority support for strong immigration enforcement, state and local police often cooperate with federal officials. Some state governments have declared federal enforcement activities insufficient, and attempted to prevent illegal immigration through state law and police. In some jurisdictions where majorities feel federal immigration restrictions are unjust or enforcement actions too harsh, state and local police are prohibited from voluntary cooperation with immigration enforcement agencies. This may include information sharing or acting on ICE detainers. Some jurisdictions prohibit asking about or checking the immigration status of victims, witnesses, or perpetrators, with the goal of encouraging undocumented residents to report crimes without fear of disproportionate consequences or being deported themselves. Many of these have declared themselves sanctuary cities or states.
States have considerable power to make legal residency status a requirement for employment and state services including social safety net programs and higher education. The 1982 US Supreme Court decision Plyler v. Doe ruled that K-12 students cannot be denied an education on the basis of immigration status. Whether or not to issue driver's licenses for illegal immigrants became a high-profile political issue in the 21st century.
In April 2010, Arizona passed SB 1070, at the time the broadest and strictest anti-illegal immigration bill in the United States. and was challenged by the Department of Justice as encroaching on powers reserved by the United States Constitution to the Federal Government. In July 2010, a federal district court issued a preliminary injunction affecting the most controversial parts of the law, including the section that required police officers to check a person's immigration status after a person had been involved in another act or situation which resulted in police activity. The case came to the Supreme Court of the United States in Arizona v. United States (2012). The Court unanimously sustained the law's central and most controversial requirement, requiring state law enforcement officials "to determine the immigration status of anyone they stop or arrest if they have reason to suspect that the individual might be in the country illegally"—a clause called the "show me your papers" provision by opponents. The Court, however, indicated that future legal challenges to the provision could still be pursued based on, for example, allegations of racial profiling in the use of the clause. The Court also struck down as unconstitutional, by a 5–3 vote, provisions of the Arizona law making it a criminal offense for illegal immigrants to work or seek employment and permitting police to make warrantless arrests if they had probable cause to believe that the arrestee had done an act that would render him or her deportable under federal law"; and struck down as unconstitutional, by a 6–2 vote, a clause of the Arizona law that made it a state crime for immigrants to fail to register with the federal government.
In 2016, Arizona reached a settlement with a number of immigrants rights organizations, including the National Immigration Law Center, overturning the part of the law providing for police to demand papers from persons they suspected of being illegally present in the United States. The practice had led to racial profiling of Latinos and other minorities. The Los Angeles Times reported that the settlement "pulls the last set of teeth from what was once the nation's most fearsome immigration law."
States do have the police power to control movement across their borders and set up border checkpoints, as with weigh stations, California Border Protection Stations, and highway checkpoints set up during the COVID-19 pandemic in Rhode Island. Texas governor Greg Abbott used this power in various ways under Operation Lone Star, targeting illegal entries across the Mexico border. Texas authorities have arrested undocumented migrants on state charges for offenses such as criminal trespass on private land and human smuggling. They began building or enhancing border walls and other physical deterrents, sometimes with negative consequences for migrant safety or the environment, which generated lawsuits. In April 2022, Abbott ordered state authorities to inspect commercial vehicles entering from Mexico (which had already passed US customs inspection) for illegal cargo and passengers. This caused massive traffic backups and had to be abandoned shortly thereafter, without having made any seizures or arrests. A standoff at Eagle Pass began in January 2024 when the governor ordered the Texas National Guard seized control of a park and refused entry to federal border control agents. Abbott and Arizona governor Doug Ducey have arranged for buses to transport migrants released from federal custody to pro-sanctuary cities or even the homes of prominent liberal politicians, without coordinating with local officials and sometimes overwhelming local support services. (At times, federal, state, and private facilities along the southern border have also become overwhelmed.) Florida governor Ron DeSantis even once arranged to airlift of migrants to Martha's Vineyard, a wealthy island in liberal Massachusetts.
Employment
Illegal immigrants are generally not allowed to receive state or local public benefits, which includes professional licenses. However, in 2013 the California State Legislature passed laws allowing illegal immigrants to obtain professional licenses. On February 1, 2014. Sergio C. Garcia became the first illegal immigrant to be admitted to the State Bar of California since 2008, when applicants were first required to list citizenship status on bar applications.
E-Verify
E-Verify is a United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) website that allows businesses to determine the eligibility of their employees, both US and foreign citizens, to work in the United States. No federal law mandates use of E-Verify.
Research shows that E-Verify harms the labor market outcomes of illegal immigrants and improves the labor market outcomes of Mexican legal immigrants and US-born Hispanics, but has no impact on labor market outcomes for non-Hispanic Americans. A 2016 study suggests that E-Verify reduces the number of illegal immigrants in states that have mandated use of E-Verify for all employers, and further notes that the program may deter illegal immigration to the United States in general.
Apprehension
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Federal law enforcement agencies, specifically US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the United States Border Patrol (USBP), and US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), enforce the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (INA), and to some extent, the United States Armed Forces, state and local law enforcement agencies, and civilians and civilian groups guard the border.
At workplace
Before 2007, immigration authorities alerted employers of mismatches between reported employees' Social Security cards and the actual names of the card holders. In September 2007, a federal judge halted this practice of alerting employers of card mismatches.
At times illegal hiring has not been prosecuted aggressively: between 1999 and 2003, according to The Washington Post, "work-site enforcement operations were scaled back 95 percent by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Major employers of illegal immigrants have included:
- Wal-Mart: In 2005, Wal-Mart agreed to pay $11 million to settle a federal investigation that found hundreds of illegal immigrants were hired by Wal-Mart's cleaning contractors.
- Swift & Co.: In December 2006, in the largest such crackdown in American history, US federal immigration authorities raided Swift & Co. meat-processing plants in six US states, arresting about 1,300 illegal immigrant employees.
- Tyson Foods: This company was accused of actively importing illegal labor for its chicken packing plants; at trial, however, the jury acquitted the company after evidence was presented that Tyson went beyond mandated government requirements in demanding documentation for its employees.
- Gebbers Farms: In December 2009, US immigration authorities forced this Brewster, Washington, farm known for its fruit orchards to fire more than 500 illegal workers, mostly immigrants from Mexico. Some were working with false social security cards and other false identification.
Detention
About 31,000 people who are not US citizens are held in immigration detention on any given day, including children, in over 200 detention centers, jails, and prisons nationwide. The United States government held more than 300,000 people in immigration detention in 2007 while deciding whether to deport them.
