Unauthorised immigrants in US fell to 10.7 million in 2016

THE population of unauthorised immigrants in the US fell to 10.7 million in 2016, its lowest level since 2004, due largely to a decline in the number of people coming from Mexico, a study released this week said.

The report from the Pew Research Center showed the number of illegal immigrants in the US has declined steadily since its peak of 12.2 million in 2007. Researchers believe part of the reason for the decline was the economic recession that gripped the US in 2007 and the slow recovery that followed, which limited work opportunities for migrants.

US President Donald Trump has made immigration enforcement a focus for his administration, most recently pressing the US Congress to authorise funding of a wall on the border with Mexico and deploying troops in advance of the arrival of a caravan of migrants from Central America.

Even before Trump took office, a decline in the number of illegal immigrants from Mexico had changed the demographic profile of unauthorised migrants in the US. Mexico is still the country of origin for about half the unauthorised immigrants in the US but their number in that total population fell by 1.5 million between 2007 and 2016, the Pew report found. During that decade, the number of unauthorised immigrants from Central America increased by 375 000. With the share of Mexicans decreasing, Asians account for 22% of unauthorised immigrants who recently arrived in the US.

Among recent arrivals, immigrants in the US who overstayed a visa were likely to outnumber people who illegally crossed the border, it said.

Among the 10.7 million unauthorised immigrants, two-thirds of adults have lived in the US for more than a decade, the Pew Research Center study found. Five million US-born children with American citizenship are living with parents or relatives who are unauthorised immigrants, the study found.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is to appeal against a US Court of Appeals ruling last week that blocked its bid to prevent migrants who cross the border illegally from requesting asylum. It said the ruling “undermines the executive branch’s constitutional and statutory authority to secure the nation’s borders”.