State numbers fall by 30,000
The number of immigrants living in Colorado without documentation fell significantly between 2007 and 2017 as part of a nationwide decrease in people living in the country illegally, according to a report Wednesday.
“The number of unauthorized immigrants in Colorado dropped by about 30,000 over the last decade, from about 210,000 in 2007 to 180,000 in 2017,” said Jeff Passel, author of the new nonpartisan Pew Research Center report.
That’s a 14 percent decrease over a decade. People living in the country illegally make up about 3 percent of Colorado’s population, according to the new figures.
At least 70 percent of Colorado’s immigrants who are in the country illegally come from Mexico. For several reasons, the number of those arriving immigrants declined between 2007 and 2017 while the number of immigrants from Central America increased. Similar data from 2018 is not yet available.
The Pew study found the number of immigrants in the United States without documentation declined nationwide from an estimated 12.2 million in 2007 to 10.5 million in 2017. The number from Mexico declined from 6.9 million to 4.9 million over that same time.
“The number of Mexican unauthorized immigrants in the United States declined so sharply over the past decade that they no longer are the majority of those living in the country illegally,” Pew’s researchers wrote.
That significant drop in undocumented immigrants occurred almost entirely during the presidency of Barack Obama, labeled pejoratively by immigrant rights advocates as “deporter in chief.” Along with border enforcement changes, economic factors also played a role, according to Passel.
“The immediate impetus for the drop after 2007 was onset of the Great Recession and the huge increase in the unemployment rate and — particularly for Mexicans and unauthorized immigrants — the slowdown or stoppage in housing construction that started in 2007,” he said. “It’s a major employer of undocumented immigrants from Mexico.”
The number of Border Patrol agents increased, as did the sophistication of their techniques. Barriers near San Diego and El
Paso and Brownsville limited access. Violence in northern Mexico made pathways perilous. And Mexico’s economy expanded, giving fewer reasons to move north.
“So, there were increased opportunities in Mexico, which made it easier for them to stay there, and decreased opportunities in the U.S.,” Passel said of those Great Recession years.
Colorado as a whole and Denver in particular have positioned themselves as welcoming places for asylum seekers and immigrants, but have resisted claims they are so-called sanctuary sites for undocumented immigrants.
On two occasions in the past month, asylum seekers were bused from the border to Denver as they sought a final destination in the United States. At the Colorado Capitol, lawmakers passed laws this year giving immigrants without legal documentation better access to driver’s licenses and prohibiting police from enforcing Immigration and Customs Enforcement requests to detain immigrants beyond their release date.