Unauthorized Immigration

Written testimony submitted to U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs for a hearing on: Securing the Border: Defining the Current Population Living in the Shadows and Addressing Future Flows

A group of 26 states filed a lawsuit in December to stop his executive actions on immigration, arguing that he didn't have the authority to make the changes.

Immigration continues to loom as a major issue in 2015, following President Obama's executive actions last year expanding the number of undocumented immigrants permitted to work and stay in the U.S. A roundup of facts about unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. and public opinion.

For the first time on record, more non-Mexicans than Mexicans were apprehended at U.S. borders in 2014 by the Customs and Border Patrol.

One-in-three (36%) of the nearly 54,000 unaccompanied children released to sponsors over the past year after their apprehension by immigration authorities have been placed in homes in three states – Texas, New York and California.

As the federal government gears up to offer deportation relief to about 4 million unauthorized immigrants, it’s worth looking back to 1986, when a new law established what was then the biggest legalization and citizenship process in U.S. history.

So far, about 702,000 unauthorized immigrants have had their applications accepted for review since the program began in August 2012, according to government data. Of the applicants, 87% have been approved for the renewable two-year permits.

The 5.8 million unauthorized immigrants not eligible for deportation relief under President Obama’s executive actions are more likely than those eligible to be unmarried and not have U.S.-born children living with them, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis.

President Obama’s executive action on immigration, expanding deportation relief to millions of undocumented immigrants, attracted strong public interest last week.