Report: Last Five Years Highest Immigration in HistoryIllegal Aliens Are Almost Half of New Arrivals

Center for Immigration Studies

WASHINGTON (December 2005) -- As the nation considers immigration proposals from Congress and the President, a Center for Immigration Studies analysis of new Census Bureau data shows that the immigrant population (legal and illegal) reached a new high in 2005. The data, which the Bureau has not yet analyzed, also show that 2000-2005 is the highest five-year period of new immigration (legal and illegal) in American history. Almost half of new arrivals are estimated to be illegal aliens.

The new report provides a detailed picture of the socio-economic status of immigrants, including estimates for illegal aliens. States with the largest increase in immigrants are California, Texas Georgia, New Jersey, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Washington, Virginia, Arizona, Tennessee, Minnesota, and Nevada.

Embargoed copies of the report, ''Immigrants at Mid-Decade: A Snapshot of American's Foreign-Born Population in 2005,'' are available to the media. The study will be posted to the Center's site at http://www.cis.org on December 12.

Steven Camarota, author of the report and the Center's Director of Research, will release the report at a press conference on Monday, December 12, at 10 a.m. in the Murrow Room of the National Press Club, 14th and F streets, N.W.

For more information, contact Steven Camarota at (202) 466-8185 or sac@cis.org.

-------------------------------------------
Center for Immigration Studies
1522 K St. NW, Suite 820
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 466-8185 fax: (202) 466-8076
center@cis.org www.cis.org