Half of immigrants in Texas are there illegally, study says

State has one of the fastest-growing immigrant populations.

By Bob Dart
WASHINGTON BUREAU
Thursday, November 29, 2007

WASHINGTON — Half of the nearly 3.5 million immigrants living in Texas are in the country illegally, the Center for Immigration Studies says in a report being released today.

Based on the latest Census Bureau data, the report said Texas has one of the fastest-growing immigrant populations of any state. It said that 50 percent of the state's foreign-born population — slightly more than 1.7 million people — are illegal immigrants. Only Arizona at 65 percent, North Carolina at 58 percent and Georgia at 53 percent had a higher proportion of illegal immigrants in their immigrant populations.

Many people within the undocumented population are unskilled workers and tend to go to states where they can find those types of jobs, explained Flavia Jimenez, a senior policy analyst with the National Council of La Raza, a nonpartisan advocacy group for Hispanic Americans. And many go where there are already family members.

The influx of immigrants into Texas reflects the national trend, the report showed. The nation's immigrant population — legal and illegal — reached a record of 37.9 million in 2007.

Nearly one in three of these newcomers is here illegally. Half of the immigrants from Mexico and Central America are in the country illegally, and one-third of those from South America are illegal immigrants.