Facts on Immigration Today

Thanks to the Center for American Progress, we have at our disposal a broad array of well founded facts that should help us in making thoughtful and reasonable decisions about Comprehensive Immigration Reform. Here are a few of the highlights from an article by Ann Garcia on the Center's website. You can read the full article here.

As of 2011, there were about 40 million foreign-born residents in the United States. This includes 15 million naturalized citizens, 13 million permanent  residents, and 11 million undocumented. The percentage of foreign-born people in the U.S. is now 13%, less than the peak of 14.8% in 1890, but still really substantial. In recent years, there has been a rapid increase in the percentage of foreign-born people.

Almost a million of these 40 million foreign-born, identify as gay or transgender. About 68% have a high school diploma or equivalent, which is less than the native-born population, but 11% have master's degrees, professional degrees or doctorates compared to 10% of the native-born. Of the foreign-born, 52% own homes compared to 67% of the native-born.

Regarding the undocumented specifically, people from Mexico account for 59% of the 11 million, with 6% from El Salvador, 5% from Guatemala, 3% from Honduras, and 2% from China and the Philippines.

Here is a striking and important fact. Of the 11 million undocumented, 63% have been living in the U.S. for 10 years or longer.

And here's another fascinating claim regarding the economic benefits of embracing the 11 million undocumented. If they were given a path to citizenship, over the next 10 years the stimulus to the U.S. economy could easily exceed 1.1 trillion dollars.

The overall point, of course, is that immigration reform is good for everyone, the undocumented and those who are already citizens of the U.S. It stands to benefit us economically, educationally, culturally, and politically. It is a cause whose time has come. It is now just a matter of mustering the will to make it happen.