Estimating the size and distribution of the illegal alien population in the United States is an inexact science. Estimates vary from approximately 11 million to more than 20 million, depending on who you ask.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the Center for Migration Studies (CMS) \u2013 a New York-based organization that champions mass-immigration policies \u2013 recently released an especially low estimate of this population which should make all decent research professionals collectively scratch their heads. The organization claimed in a recent report<\/a> that the illegal alien population in the United States has decreased to 10.35 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This report is plagued by\nnumerous methodological errors that result in a far lower count of the illegal\nalien population than what it is in actuality. These include, but are not\nlimited to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are several different ACS figures that offer an indication of how many foreign-born individuals reside in the United States based on different demographic criteria. However, depending on which category is used, the results could vary by more than two million. The 2019 ACS question on citizenship yields a weighted foreign-born total that is more than two million individuals lower than the weighted results for questions regarding how long foreign-born respondents have lived in the country. For estimating the total foreign-born population, the latter question should be used so that all individuals who indicate themselves as foreign-born are included, or else the illegal alien population will be too low once all necessary calculations are made.<\/p>\n\n\n All these issues combined explain why the CMS study\u2019s illegal alien population was significantly lower than the estimates from essentially all other organizations. Once these methodological errors are accounted for, the figures mirror the Federation for American Immigration Reform\u2019s most recent estimate (based largely on the same ACS data) of 14.5 million. Our methodology is explained in this study.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n The CMS authors are very\nopen and honest about what impact they hope their report will have. \u201cThe fact\nthat the US undocumented population is shrinking,\u201d they assert, \u201cprovides\nimportant context to media and political narratives, which often emphasize\nshort-term \u2018crises\u2019 or claim that the United States is \u2018overwhelmed\u2019 by\nimmigrants.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Essentially, the authors\nhope that their flawed estimate will relieve the concerns of most Americans\nregarding the ongoing border crisis by suggesting that the United States is\neasily able to absorb this entire illegal alien population. And, since we are\nsupposedly capable of absorbing this population, why not welcome them with\namnesty as well?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The organization argues that \u201cexpanding legal pathways and promoting citizenship [for illegal aliens]\u201d could \u201caddress disparities\u201d between illegal aliens, legal permanent residents (LPRs), and citizens. In other words, it\u2019s the age-old argument that it\u2019s the fault of American citizens that immigration lawbreakers are unable to fully participate in the workforce, not a result of their own illegal actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The authors of this study believe\nthat Americans should not just ignore the fact that illegal aliens violated our\nimmigration laws, but they further propose that we should celebrate their\nactions by offering them citizenship. This demand that we reward immigration\nlawbreakers is nothing new. Neither is the practice of conveniently inflating\nor deflating statistics until they conveniently fit the pre-constructed\nnarrative of the \u201cresearchers\u201d involved. American citizens deserve better on\nboth accounts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Estimating the size and distribution of the illegal alien population in the United States is an inexact science. Estimates vary from approximately 11 million to more than 20 million, depending on who you ask. However, the Center for Migration Studies (CMS) \u2013 a New York-based organization that champions mass-immigration policies \u2013 recently released an especially<\/p>\n