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U.S. IMMIGRATION FACTS AND FIGURES
The majority of immigrants come to the United States intending to work, and most do; immigrants' labor force participation rate is 68%, slightly higher than the U.S.-born rate of 66%. As a result, immigrant workers have become essential to America 's local and state industries. Even during hard times, immigration helps cushion the impact of an economic downturn or recession by creating a more flexible labor force as flows of immigrant labor generally lessen during a recession.
The average age of a new immigrant is 28 and 95% are below retirement age.
The average immigrant-headed household in California contributes a net $2,679 annually to Social Security — $539 more than the average U.S.-born household.
From 1997-199, the size of the California labor force nearly doubled, from 7.8 million to 15.8 million workers. Immigrant workers were responsible for 50% of this increase, spurring the California economy to grow roughly twice as fast as the U.S. as a whole.
In 1990, immigrants made up 25% of Silicon Valley 's total workforce, 30% of high-tech workers and 32% of scientists and engineers in high-tech.
Top 10 industries where immigrants work:
- manufacturing of electrical machinery, including computer hardware
- business services
- other retail trade
- education services
- manufacturing of machinery, except electrical
- construction
- other professional services
- wholesale trade
- eating and drinking places
- transportation
25% to 33% – number of High-tech Silicon Valley companies founded by Chinese or Indian immigrants
29% – High-tech companies in Silicon Valley with Chinese or Indian immigrant CEOs (as of 2000); total annual sales by these companies: $19.5 billion; jobs created by those companies: 72,839
SOME OF THE SILICON VALLEY COMPANIES FOUNDED BY IMMIGRANTS:
- Hotmail: Bought by Microsoft for $400 million
- Intel: $27 billion revenue, 7,000 employees in Silicon Valley, 86,100 company-wide
- JDS Uniphase: $3.2 billion revenue, 19,948 employees
- Sanmina Corp. (now Sanmina-SCI): $4.05 billion revenue, 48,774 employees
- Solectron: $18.7 billion revenue, 60,000+ employees
- Sun Microsystems: $18 billion revenue, 43,700 employees
- Yahoo!: $717 million revenue, 3,000 employees
(Sources: 2002 American Community Survey; Quarterly Statistical Data of Public Assistance Families in the County of Santa Clara, July 1, 2003; AnnaLee Saxenian, “Brain Circulation: How High-Skill Immigration Makes Everyone Better Off.”; The Brookings Review, Vol. 2 No. 1, Winter 2002, 28-31.; San Jose/Silicon Valley Business Journal Book of Lists 2002; Basic Current Population Survey, Dec. 2000, Dec. 2001, Dec. 2002; Laura E. Hill and Joseph M. Hayes, “ California 's Newest Immigrants.” California Counts: Population Trends and Profiles, Vol. 5 No. 2, Nov. 2003. Public Policy Institute of California and wpusa.org)
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BY THE NUMBERS
1,600,000 – illegal immigrants arrested each year by federal immigration agents
20,000 – undocumented “immigrant fugitives” arrested by ICE agents through “Operation Return to Sender” in fiscal year 2006
1 – child left behind for every two illegal immigrants apprehended and deported
5,000,000 – U.S. children with at least one undocumented parent
500 – undocumented immigrants arrested at workplaces in 2002
3,600 – undocumented immigrants arrested at workplaces in 2006
176,990 – undocumented immigrants deported from the U.S. in 1999 (latest figures are not immediately available)
610,547 – Citizenship applications processed by U.S. immigration officials in 1998
1,250,000 – Citizenship applications processed by the INS in 1999
5,000 – Number of children locked up by federal immigration officers each year, most of them boys averaging 15 years of age, according to Amnesty International.
4 out of 10 – undocumented immigrants who enter the U.S. legally. These include immigrants who enter with a temporary visa and then remain in the U.S. beyond the expiration date of the visa
11,000,000 – undocumented immigrants currently in America
(Sources: National Council of La Raza and NIF)
GREEN CARD LOTTERY
The State Department designates which countries' residents are eligible to enter the lottery.
Currently, the State Department has excluded residents from the 14 countries that send the highest number of immigrants each year. These are: China (mainland and Taiwan ), India, The Philippines, Vietnam , South Korea , Poland, United Kingdom and dependent territories (except Northern Ireland ), Canada, Mexico, Jamaica, El Salvador, Colombia, and The Dominican Republic.
Residents from eligible countries must either have a high school education or its equivalent or within the past five years, have two years of work experience in an occupation that requires at least two years of training or experience.4. Applicants enter the lottery with a chance to receive one of the 55,000 randomly awarded "diversity visas." The State Department then reviews those that are selected to ensure that they meet the above criteria.
The first lottery was held in 1994 and it takes place annually.
TEMPORARY PROTECTED STATUS (TPS)
Congress has authorized the U.S. Attorney General to grant Temporary Protected Status (TPS) eligibility to residents of countries in crisis who are presently in the U.S. The Attorney General may designate a country for TPS if the people from that country who are currently in the U.S. would face "on-going armed conflict," natural disaster, or "extraordinary temporary conditions" if they were to be returned to their home country. The USCIS will grant TPS to those who can prove they are from a designated country, and that they were present in the U.S. on or before the date the Attorney General made the designation. A country's designation of Temporary Protected Status may last for 6, 12, or 18 months. Persons with TPS will not be deported from the U.S., and may live and work legally in the U.S. until the designated period expires. TPS can be renewed if the Attorney General determines that unsafe conditions in the country persist.
As of December 1996, nationals of four countries have TPS status: Liberia, Somalia, Bosnia, and Rwanda.
IMMIGRANTS PAY MORE THAN THEY RECEIVE IN BENEFITS
Over his lifetime, the typical immigrant is a net contributor to public coffers. Immigrant households pay between $20,000 and $80,000 more in lifetime taxes than they collect in lifetime services — and perhaps more. Immigrant households with a naturalized citizen pay $6,580 a year in taxes — compared to $5,080 for the average household. After an average of 10 to 15 years in the U.S., non-citizens' earnings match and then exceed those of native-born Americans. Over the next 75 years, they will pay close to $2 trillion more in Social Security taxes than they receive in benefits.
(Source: Stephen Moore of the Cato Institute, "Immigrants: A Surprising Fiscal Bargain," Investor's Business Daily. For more information see: http://www.ncpa.org)
IT'S NOT MEXICO, IT'S INDIA
Quick: What's the fastest growing group of illegal immigrants in America? Bleep. If you answered Mexico, you got it wrong.
According to recent federal analysis, the fastest growing source of illegal immigration in the country is India. It's not surprising; India has been the main source of engineers and programmers that help power up major high-tech companies such as eBay and Google.
There are no exact figures, but the Pew Hispanic Center estimates that there are 400,000 illegal immigrants from India who are now living in the United States. Officials from the Department of Homeland Security say there are 270,000. Virtually all of the unauthorized immigrants from India entered the country legally but ended up violating the terms of their visas, federal officials say. The estimated figures recorded a 125 percent jump since 2000 and is the largest percentage increase of any nation with illegal immigrants in America.
There are 2.5 million people of Indian ancestry in the U.S., and about 1 million are not U.S. citizens, according to the Census Bureau.
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