“Foreign-born” and “immigrant” are used interchangeably and refer to people without U.S. citizenship at birth. This population includes naturalized citizens, legal permanent residents, refugees and refugee claimants, persons holding certain temporary visas, and unauthorized immigrants. Undocumented immigrants have also been found to have a positive effect on economic conditions in the United States. [192] [205] [206] According to NPR, in 2005, about 3% of illegal immigrants worked in agriculture,[207] and the H-2A visa allows U.S. employers to bring foreigners to the U.S. to fill temporary farm jobs. [208] States that have imposed stricter immigration laws have suffered significant economic losses. [209] [210] Of the one million initial applications accepted since the beginning of the program, the top states of residence for individuals are California (28%), Texas (17%), Illinois and New York (5% each) and Florida (4%). The top five countries of origin of accepted candidates are Mexico (79%), El Salvador (4%), Guatemala (3%), Honduras (2%) and South Korea (1%).
The US Commission on Immigration Reform, appointed by Bill Clinton,[48] recommended reducing legal immigration from about 800,000 people per year to about 550,000. [49] While an influx of new residents from different cultures presents some challenges, “the United States has always been driven by its immigrants,” President Bill Clinton said in 1998. 57% supported the Trump-era “stay in Mexico” policy and 55% supported legalizing the status of those who were illegally brought to the US as children (as proposed in the DREAM Act). This spotlight provides information on the estimated 44.9 million immigrants to the United States by compiling the most reliable and up-to-date data available. It provides an overview of historical immigration trends in the United States, socio-demographic information about who is an immigrant, through which channels, and how many immigrants are naturalized. It also includes data on government enforcement actions and government efforts to process visas. Of the 707,000 immigrants who received green cards in fiscal year 2020, 45 percent were immediate relatives of U.S. citizens (an uncapped visa category), followed by 17 percent were family-related immigrants (whose admission is limited by visa and country limits). About 21% of new LPRs were sponsored or requested by their employers, including job-creating investors, up from just 14% of new LPRs in fiscal 2019. Meanwhile, 9% were cleansed of refugee or asylum status and about 4% were winners of the diversity lottery. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, also known as the Hart-Cellar Act, abolished the system of quotas of national origin.
By harmonizing immigration policies, the law led to new immigration from non-European countries, which changed the ethnic demographics of the United States. [43] In 1970, 60% of immigrants came from Europe; By 2000, this share had fallen to 15 per cent. [44] In 1990, George H. W. Bush signed the Immigration Act of 1990,[45] which increased legal immigration to the United States by 40%. [46] In 1991, Bush signed the Armed Forces Immigration Adjustment Act 1991, which allowed foreign military personnel who served 12 years or more in the U.S. armed forces to qualify for permanent residency and, in some cases, citizenship. Nearly 8 million people immigrated to the United States between 2000 and 2005; 3.7 million of them arrived undocumented. [54] [55] In 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed an immigration reform that granted amnesty to 3 million undocumented immigrants in the country. [56] Hispanic immigrants experienced job losses during the recession in the late 2000s,[57] but since the recession ended in June 2009, immigrants have seen a net increase of 656,000 jobs. [58] More than one million immigrants were granted legal residency in 2011.
[59] Of these 23.2 million naturalized citizens, 32% were naturalized between 2010 and 2019, 28% between 2000 and 2009, and 39% before fiscal year 2000.