Number of Illegal Migrants Growing

The number of undocumented immigrants in the United States reached 7 million in 2000 and the net growth of the population could be as much as half a million new arrivals a year, the Immigration and Naturalization Service reported Friday.

With 2.2 million undocumented residents, California had the largest number of any state, about 30% of the total population.

Texas, where the number of undocumented immigrants passed 1 million for the first time, had the second-largest figure.

But some of the most rapid growth took place in states such as Georgia, Iowa and South Carolina, which had relatively few undocumented immigrants before 1990.

The figures marked an upward revision from a previous INS estimate of 5.8 million undocumented immigrants in January 2000. Many other authorities -- including the Census Bureau -- regarded that number as too low. Some experts believe the actual figure exceeds 10 million.

Mexico has long been the leading source of undocumented immigrants, but the new INS estimates showed that the Mexican share of the population increased from about 58% in 1990 to 69% in 2000. The number of undocumented Mexicans increased from about 2 million in 1990 to 4.8 million in 2000.

The decade saw economic travails in Mexico, the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, and the spread of Mexican migration beyond traditional destinations such as California and Texas to states in the South, Midwest and Northeast.

The other countries in the top 10 are El Salvador, Guatemala, Colombia, Honduras, China, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, the Philippines and Brazil. But none of these nations accounted for more than 3% of the undocumented population.

The report estimated that 968,000 undocumented immigrants arrived in 1999. But about some 245,000 left the country, for the most part voluntarily. An additional 183,000 became legal residents, and 28,000 died. That resulted in a net increase of 512,000.

On average, the undocumented population rose by about 350,000 a year during the 1990s.

The figures do not include would-be immigrants turned away at the border and other points of entry, before they have entered the United States. In 2000, the INS turned back about 2.3 million foreigners who tried to enter the country without proper papers.

The INS study showed that many undocumented immigrants eventually became legal residents -- nearly 1.5 million over the course of the decade.

Advocates of curbs on immigration said the figures show border enforcement is still lacking.

“With nearly 1 million illegal immigrants a year, our system is still broken,” said Steven Camarota, research director at the Center for Immigration Studies.

He said the numbers also indicated a security problem, showing that America had “lost control of its borders, and that’s extremely troubling given the threat to this country from Al Qaeda terrorists.”