Study: Typical Illegal Resident in U.S. for More Than 12 Years

Wall Street Journal

By Laura Meckler

September 3, 2014

Study: Typical Illegal Resident in U.S. for More Than 12 Years 

The number of people living in the U.S. illegally last year was steady at 11.3 million, the Pew Research Center reported Wednesday. But with the passing of time, the illegal population now has been in the U.S. much longer than was the case in previous years.

 

In 2013, the typical undocumented resident had been living in the U.S. for 12.7 years, Pew found, up from a median of less than eight years a decade earlier. Those numbers could bolster the case made by many Democrats, and some Republicans, that the illegal immigration problem is not growing worse, and that those already living here have become part of the fabric of American society.

 

More immediately, the numbers hold implications for the Obama administration as the White House weighs whether to expand a program that gives temporary relief from deportation and work permits to some illegal immigrants.

 

If President Barack Obama does expand the program, as many expect, his eligibility criteria are likely to include a measure of how long someone has lived in the U.S. as well as what sort of family ties he or she has. The Pew report finds there are millions of people with both longevity and family ties. Specifically:

 

– More than six in 10 adults living in the U.S. illegally had been here for more than a decade in 2012. About a fifth had been in the U.S. for more than two decades. Just 15% had been here for less than five years.

 

– About 4 million adults here illegally are living with their U.S. citizen children. Those with children have been, on average, here even longer than those without them—a median of 15 years.

 

“As the unauthorized population has tilted more toward long-term residents, these immigrant are more likely to have children who are U.S. citizens because they were born in the U.S.,” the report said.

 

The report finds the undocumented population has stayed steady in recent years.

 

The number of people here illegally rose steadily from 1990, when it was 3.5 million, until 2007, when it peaked at 12.2 million. Then, as the U.S. economy fell into recession and border security improved, the number of illegal crossings plummeted and some undocumented residents returned home. The illegal population fell to 11.3 million in 2009 and has remained steady since, even as the U.S. economy has recovered.

 

One note: Pew had previously estimated that undocumented population at 11.7 million in 2012, but using a better data set, the center updated its estimates and now finds that in 2012, it was 11.2 million—essentially unchanged since 2009.

 

The new estimate is based on the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.

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