The Pew Hispanic Center is one of the divisions of the influential Pew Research Center. According to a new report, illegal immigrants are more dispersed across the United States than before, are more likely to have their own households, and live with spouses and children. Approximately two-thirds of illegal immigrants are citizens of Latin American countries, mostly Mexicans.
Currently, illegal immigrants make up 4% of the U.S. population and 5.4% of the country's workforce. Children of illegal immigrants account for 6.8% of all elementary and middle school students. 73% of these children were born in the United States (for comparison, this figure was 63% in 2003).
Previous Pew studies showed that the number of illegal immigrants in the United States grew rapidly from 1990 to 2006, but then stabilized at around 12 million.
As previously reported, President Barack Obama considers the problem of 'people without documents' a priority and intends to work this year on preparing a reform aimed at legalizing the status of millions of illegal immigrants. Obama, in particular, plans to develop a new course aimed at turning the immigration process into an 'orderly system.' It is expected that the president will publicly present initiatives in this area in May, and in the summer will convene working groups with lawmakers from both parties to prepare a reform bill—likely by the fall.
Incidentally, it was the promise to make immigration reform one of his main tasks in his first year as president that guaranteed Obama the support of the majority of Hispanic voters during the elections. According to statistics, most of the 12-million-strong army of 'people without documents' are from Mexico and other Latin American countries.
Obama's plans will, of course, spark heated debates in American society. Republicans, who previously argued with foam at the mouth that illegal immigrants are taking jobs away from legal residents, are now sounding the alarm even more. Especially since the president's attempts to legalize foreign labor coincided with the economic crisis, when unemployment is rampant in the country and Americans, who recently turned away with disdain from 'menial jobs,' are now ready to take them on. As noted by the American Russian-language publication «Русская Реклама», similar sentiments among voters earlier, in 2007, already led to the failure of the immigration reform bill.