The number of immigrants who are in Arizona illegally has declined slightly from 2009 to 2010 but remains at about 400,000 people, according to a report from the nonpartisan Pew Research Center.
This fact should dispel the myth that Arizona is overrun by illegal immigrants, but combined with other findings, it reinforces the need for a national change in immigration policy.
Among the findings: of the 40.2 million foreign-born people living in the United States in March 2010, some 28 percent were "unauthorized," or here without benefit of legal immigration documents. That's about the same as last year, but down slightly from 2007.
Of the total U.S. population, about 4 percent of residents were here illegally. Babies with at least one parent in the country without documentation make up about 8 percent of all births, and most were born to parents who have been in the country for several years.
This indicates that people immigrate to the U.S., make a life and raise a family. They're part of our communities, especially in states like California, Texas, Nevada and, yes, Arizona.
They're also part of our economies. Nationally, illegal immigrants have made up an increasing proportion of the work force.
In 2000, unauthorized immigrants were 3.8 percent of the overall work force. A decade later, they make up 5.2 percent of employed and unemployed workers. In real terms, the number of unauthorized immigrant workers nationally increased from 5.5 million in 2000 to 8 million in 2010, according to the Pew study.
These facts point, again, to just how intertwined people become in a community, no matter what their immigration papers say.
The bad economy has not pushed people back to their home countries in droves. Bad times in the United States are likely a far cry better than what they'd experience elsewhere.
The Pew report is instructive because it lays out the facts - illegal immigrants are here, they're part of the economy and they don't appear to be leaving.
The roadblocks put in front of foreign-born workers don't make sense for them, or for Americans. The system now serves no one but employers willing to break the law for cheap labor.
Fixing the immigration system must be a national priority.
Arizona Daily Star
