A recent report that the nation’s illegal immigrant population has declined by nearly 1 million has sharpened the debate over whether to legalize those who remain or allow their numbers to shrink through attrition.
The number of illegal immigrants living in the United States dropped to 10.8 million in 2009 from 11.6 million in 2008, the second consecutive year of decline and the sharpest decrease in at least three decades, according to a report last month by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
“This represents a sharp break from the past, when pretty much the illegal population has continually grown,” said Steven Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C., research group that favors immigration restrictions. “It shows illegal immigration is not inexorable.”
A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, Matthew Chandler, attributed the decline both to the weak economy and what he called the deployment of “unprecedented resources” in stopping illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border and throughout the country.
Immigration control advocates pointed to the report as evidence that illegal immigration can be reduced by restricting job opportunities, and that legalization is not necessary to solve the problem.
Giving a pathway to citizenship to qualified illegal immigrants has long been the most controversial element in congressional proposals for comprehensive immigration reform.
“Whether jobs dry up because the government is doing enforcement or because of the recession, illegal aliens react in a rational manner: They either will not come or they’ll go home,” said Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform. “It certainly shows that illegal immigration is a controllable phenomenon.”
Immigrant advocates, however, argue that millions of illegal migrants have been here for years, with settled lives they will not easily disrupt to return home.
“The reality is that they are not going back,” said the Rev. Richard Estrada of Our Lady Queen of Angels Church in Los Angeles, a self-described illegal immigrant sanctuary.
The report estimated the size of the illegal immigrant population by comparing the total foreign-born population in the United States to the legal resident population and subtracting the difference. The report cautioned that changes made to the census survey could have affected the results.
Researchers believe the drop was caused by a combination of fewer illegal immigrants entering the country and more leaving.
Meanwhile, the U.S. government has stepped up the removal of illegal immigrants, to 387,790 in fiscal 2009 from 291,060 in 2007.
The Chinese illegal immigrant population showed the steepest decline, plummeting by nearly half to 120,000 in 2009 from 220,000 the previous year, the report showed. Mexicans, who account for 62 percent of the undocumented population, declined by 380,000 to 6.65 million.
