New Report from FAIR Finds More than 13 Million Illegal Aliens Reside in the U.S.

2007 Figures Represent an 88 Percent Increase Since 2000

    WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- According to a new
 report from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), How Many
 Illegal Aliens?, the illegal immigrant population of the United States now
 exceeds 13 million. In 2000, the now defunct Immigration and Naturalization
 Service estimated that there were a little more than 7 million people
 residing illegally in the U.S.
 
     The burden and costs of illegal immigration are still distributed
 unevenly across the country, but states and regions that were virtually
 immune to the impact of large-scale illegal immigration just a decade ago
 are now feeling the effects, finds the study. About 60 percent of all
 illegal immigrants -- nearly 8.4 million people -- are settled in just six
 states, California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois and New Jersey.
 Other recent reports by FAIR indicate that the combined costs of K-12
 education, health care and incarceration of criminals to those six states
 exceeds $27 billion annually.
 
     "These new estimates, showing explosive growth in illegal immigration
 in recent years, indicate why Americans all across the country are
 demanding that the government control our borders and block illegal
 immigrants from working or receiving benefits in this country," said Dan
 Stein, president of FAIR. "Almost from the day the Bush Administration took
 office, they made it clear that their aim was to reward illegal immigration
 with amnesty and assorted other benefits. As a result, we have seen record
 increases in illegal immigration, mounting burdens on taxpayers, and
 unprecedented public concern about this issue."
 
     At 13,175,000 people, the illegal population of the United States is
 now larger than the entire population of Illinois, the nation's fifth most
 populous state. The phenomenon has also become a national one in the past
 decade, finds How Many Illegal Aliens? More than three-fifths of the states
 have seen their illegal alien population more than double since 2000. In
 all, 24 states now have illegal populations that exceed 100,000.
 
     "There are no overnight fixes to a problem that has been growing for
 years," commented Stein. "But the American public strongly supports an
 enforcement-first approach that discourages new people from coming
 illegally and encourages millions who are here to return home. What is
 clear is that lack of enforcement and proposed amnesties have only
 exacerbated the problem."
 
     How Many Illegal Aliens? is available at:
 
     www.fairus.org/site/PageServer?pagename=iic_immigrationissuecentersb8ca
 
 
 
 
 

SOURCE FAIR