Undocumented population dips to lowest level in U.S. in decade

The number of undocumented immigrants in the United States in 2016 dipped to its lowest level in about a decade, according to a report released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center, a nonprofit think tank in Washington, D.C.

There were an estimated 10.7 million undocumented immigrants living in the country in 2016, down from a peak of 12.2 million in 2007, the report said, citing the latest available data. The decline is largely due to a sharp decrease in illegal immigration from Mexico, according to Pew. Among the highlights of the report:

• In contrast to Mexico, the number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. from Central America increased by 375,000 between 2007-2016, the report said. In 2016, the 1.85 million Central America immigrants living in the U.S. illegally came from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

• A growing number of undocumented immigrants arrive in the U.S. legally, but overstay their visas. “Among unauthorized immigrants in the Pew Center’s estimates who arrived in the previous five years, the share who are likely to be people who overstayed their visas probably grew substantially between 2007 and 2016 — to the point where they probably constituted most of the recent unauthorized immigrant arrivals in 2016,” the report said.

• A dozen states reported declines in their populations of undocumented immigrants since 2007: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York and Oregon. Three states experienced increases: Louisiana, Maryland and Massachusetts.

• An estimated 5 million U.S.-born children live with undocumented parents, up from 4.5 million in 2007. That number has leveled off in recent years as births to undocumented immigrant women have dipped and as many of these children become adults.

• The number of undocumented immigrants in the workforce — an estimated 7.8 million — was lower in 2016 than it was a decade earlier, with this population making up an estimated 4.8 percent of the workforce.

Methodology: The Pew Research Center used Census Bureau data and government surveys such as the American Community Survey to calculate how many immigrants lived in the U.S. in a particular year, according to the authors of the report. Researchers also used official counts of immigrant admissions and other demographic data (such as death counts) to determine how many immigrants were in the U.S. legally. That number was subtracted from the total to get an estimate of the country’s undocumented immigrant population.