This essay is first in a series about immigration. I’m writing not because I’m an expert. I am a layman wanting to understand more. That is pretty much the rationale behind In Penn’s Woods. I look into things and write in order to not feel so adrift in the sea of current events. I offer what I write on the assumption, right or wrong, readers may have similar questions and uncertainties with which I began my queries. I hope what I offer may prove helpful to them — as the efforts have been to me.
Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door! -- Emma Lazarus, from her poem The New Colossus
The United States is home to more foreign-born residents than any other country in the world. Immigrants comprise 13.6% of our population — 45 million among 332 million persons.
The proportion of the population that is foreign-born has steadily increased since 1970, when there were 10 million immigrants among 203 million persons. Just less than 5%. Today’s level remains below what is the record high of 14.8% in 1890.
Immigrants and their U.S. born children currently make up 27% of our population,
The Census Bureau projects that by 2050 our nation will have an immigrant population of 65 million within 390 million persons — 16.7%.
Mexico, according to our latest census, is the most common country of origin of our current immigrant population at 24%. The next major countries of origin are India, 6%, mainland China, 5%, and the Philippines, 4%. El Salvador, Vietnam, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic are each 3%. Guatemala and Korea, each 2%. Altogether, these countries account for 56% of the immigrant population.
Legal Immigration
In fiscal year 2021, the United States granted legal permanent residency to more than 740,000 persons, down from nearly 1 million in 2019.
In late 2022, more than 4 million applicants were on the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) waiting list for family and employment-related immigrant visas. Approximately one-third of these applicants were from Mexico.
More than 60% of visas granted by USCIS are on the basis of family reunification. About 25% are based on employment. About 8% are for refugees and asylees.
Altogether, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2022 immigrants comprised 18.1% of our nation’s civilian work force.
Several hundred thousand foreign nationals work legally in our country with non-immigrant visas. In FY 2022, over 200,000 visas were given to persons categorized as highly skilled workers. Another 300,000 visas were given to temporary workers in agriculture and other industries.
Undocumented Immigration
Undocumented immigrants within our population were estimated in 2019 as 11 million persons. An accurate estimate since then is still under a pandemic-caused fog. It is worth noting, though, that the 2019 figure of 11 million figure of undocumented immigrants is slightly below the peak number before the 2008 economic recession. The effects of the recession caused many migrants to return home and many would-be migrants not to come.
In fiscal year 2022, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) apprehended more than 2.3 million persons illegally crossing the southern border. This number does not necessarily mean there were 2.3 million persons at the border endeavoring to get across. In 2022, the public-health Title 42 restrictions were in force. Under those rules, CBP officers could return captured persons across the border without those persons having further legal sanction. The same migrants could try again.
This “incentive” structure ended when the Biden Administration removed the Title 42 restrictions in May. The long-standing Title 8 immigration law returned into full effect, authorizing CBP to place apprehended persons directly into removal proceedings. In those proceedings, an individual may petition for asylum or other humanitarian protection.
In fiscal year 2021, CBP conducted 12,833 search-and-rescue missions on the southern border to rescue migrants in distress. The same year, CBP estimated 557 deaths among migrants illegally crossing the border. In the first ten months of fiscal year 2022, CBP conducted 18,897 search-and-rescue missions.
When persons overstay their visas, they become undocumented immigrants. It is thought that, between 2010 and 2018 anyway, the number of persons becoming undocumented in this way may have exceeded the number of persons who actually crossed the border illegally.
Asylum Seekers and Unaccompanied Minors
Before 2013, most immigrants were Mexican citizens crossing the southern border and most of them were seeking work. Between 2013 and 2021, most immigrants came from Asia, especially China and India. Since 2021, Mexicans are again the majority, with an increasing number coming from Central America and elsewhere.
Many of the persons coming from Central America (and about 10% of those coming from Mexico) ask for asylum. The right to apply for asylum has been a central component of our immigration law for decades. It protects persons who have been forcibly displaced from their place of origin or are fleeing harm or persecution.
Asylum seekers who have reached our land are entitled to a judicial hearing before deportation might occur. By federal law, while awaiting trial, asylum seekers can remain in our country and, after six months, can be legally employed. Current asylum case backlog is about three years.
A recent policy of the Biden administration aims to immediately deport asylum seekers if those seekers did not have permission from the Department of Homeland Security to travel to the United States, did not apply for, and were denied, asylum in a third country traversed along the way and did not use a particular phone ap to schedule an appointment at a port-of-entry. Citizens of Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela are exempt from this policy.
When an unaccompanied minor whose nationality is of a nation with a border not contiguous with our own (that is to say, not Mexico or Canada) arrives on our border, that minor is entitled by our anti human-trafficking laws to protection and a hearing to decide the question of deportation. There have been 450,000 unaccompanied minors who have entered our country since 2020.
Unaccompanied minors, and persons with medical emergencies, are also exempted from the new rule concerning the combination of permission, third countries, and phone ap.
Immigration Courts
The increase in asylum-seekers from all nations has severely strained the U.S. immigration system. In January 2020, there was a backlog of a million court cases. The current backlog is 2.6 million and rising.
Our 700 immigration judges are overwhelmed even as they resolve cases at an ever-increasing rate. Mimi Tsankov, president of the National Association of Immigration Judges, recently stated to the Senate Judiciary Committee, “The math is clear — the courts simply cannot bring down that backlog number under the current system for years into the future.”
Nationwide, applications for asylum are denied in over 60% of all cases.
Recent Numbers
According to CBP, news release, in October there were 241,000 encounters on the southern border (309,221 nationwide) in which a migrant was detained, deemed inadmissible, or expelled. The previous October there were 231,529 such encounters on southern border (278,317 nationwide).
In June of this past summer, there was glimmer of optimism on the border when, immediately after the Title 42 public health rule ended, Title 8 resumed, and the new asylum policy was implemented, only 144,556 such encounters took place. The encounters have only increased since then.
Next week: The Categories
An earlier version misidentified the State Department as the agency which grants legal permanent residency. The granting agency is the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), a part of the Department of Homeland Security.
Sources and Source Links:
State Department Visa waiting list
Bureau of Labor Statistics news release 18 May 2023: “Foreign-Born Workers: Labor Force Characteristics 2022.”
Migrant deaths crossing border
Center for Migration Studies, 26 February 2020 “Reverse Migration to Mexico Led to U.S. Undocumented Population Decline 2010 to 2018.
Immigration judge by judge caseloads
CBP news release “National Encounters” 4 December 23
A timely and informative article. Immigration and immigration reform are among the most urgent issues we, as a country, face. I hope our public officials and representatives can make decisions based more on facts, and less on political expediency!