Immigration Law Facts

Throughout American history, immigration has played an important role in the population. In recent years there has been an immigration boom in the United States, and as of 2006 the United States accepted more legal immigrants than any other country in the world, totaling 37.5 million permanent residents. The main source of U.S. immigrants was historically Europe, followed shortly by Canada, as well as the Asian countries. At the end of the 20th century a shift occurred. Now the United States receives masses of immigrants every day, both legal and illegal, from Latin American countries. Latin American immigrants now account for more than 50 percent of the foreign-born population, while European immigrants only account for about 15 percent and Canadians for 7 percent.

Every day, nearly 70,000 foreigners arrive in the United States. More than 60,000 of them are travelers, students or businessmen; around 5,000 are illegal immigrants; and 2,000 (3 percent) are legal immigrants. Foreign-born people now represent more than 10 percent of the United States population, and most of them are concentrated in Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Texas. New York City alone has more than 15 percent of the total U.S. immigrant population.

The influx of immigrants into the United States has led many people to suggest new laws and tougher enforcements to help manage the population. Some have suggested building a barrier along some or all of the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border and creating a new guest worker program. With all the proposals that have been made, few changes have actually been made to the law, although a partial border fence was approved. On the other side of the issue, cities such as Washington D.C., New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, San Diego, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, Detroit, Jersey City, Minneapolis, Miami, Denver, Baltimore, Seattle and Portland have adopted ordinances that prevent police from asking people about their immigration status.

Regardless of the debate about the current immigration laws, it is undeniable that legal immigrants can be found in a wide range of jobs across the United States, from convenience store clerks to landscapers to software engineers to professional athletes. Many of the new legal immigrants are more educated, with either bachelor or postgraduate degrees. In 2006, 10 companies started by legal immigrants earned more than $50 billion in revenues and provided a huge number of jobs.