Indians register highest percentage of illegal aliens in US

WASHINGTON: People from India accounted for the greatest percentage of increase in America's illegal alien population since 2000, registering a jump of 133 per cent, an official report has said.

 

According to Office of Immigration Statistics, there are 280,000 illegals from India as of January 2005 or up from a population of about 120,000 in 2000, said the report released by Homeland Security Department on Friday.

 

"The greatest percentage increase in the unauthorised immigrant population from 2000 to 2005 occurred among immigrants from India (133 per cent) and Brazil (70 per cent)," said the report, 'Estimates of Unauthorised Immigrant Population Residing in the United States as of January 2005.'

 

The top five position for illegals has been taken up by Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, India and China with Korea, the Philippines, Honduras, Brazil and Vietnam filling the next five positions.  Only Vietnam showed an unchanged population of illegals between 2000 and 2005 at 160,000.

 

There are 11 million illegal aliens living and working in the US, up from 8.5 million in 2000 -- a 24 percent jump with an expected annual growth of more than 408,000. The vast majority of the illegals--nearly six million-- came from Mexico, followed  by El Salvador, Guatemala, India and China.

 

Most of the illegals migrated to California, which now has an illegal alien population estimated at 2.8 million, followed by Texas with 1.4 million and Florida with 850,000.

 

States with greatest percentage increase in illegal aliens from 2000 to 2005 were Georgia (114 per cent); Arizona (45 per cent); Nevada (41 per cent) and North Carolina (38 per cent).

 

The Homeland Security Department released the figures at a time when there is a heated debate in the US over a comprehensive immigration reform bill which is virtually tied up on Capitol Hill due to sharp differences between the House of Representatives and the Senate.

 

In its report, the Department also acknowledged the difficulty of getting specific information on the precise population of illegal aliens.

 

"Estimating the size of the unauthorized population living in the United States is challenging because of data limitations. There are no national surveys, administrative data or other sources of information that directly provide accurate estimates of this population.

 

"As a consequence, the unauthorised immigrant population must be estimated by making certain assumptions and by combining data that measure events with those that measure population," it said.

 

According to the report, the illegal alien population is placed at 10.5 million in January 2005, but assuming an annual growth rate of 408,000, the population total would have reached 11 million by January 2006.

 

It said 3.1 million of the 10.5 million illegals had come to the United States in 2000 or later and an estimated 1 million entered in 2003 or 2004, while 2.1 million arrived during 2000 through 2002.