I offered some numbers related to immigration during the May 4 show.  Here are the important numbers associated with illegal immigration into the United States:

• Settling on the numbers of illegal immigrants in the United States is very difficult.  Based on my research, I think there are some 14 million individuals in this country illegally.  Also, there 3.8 million children born to these individuals.  Of the 3.8 million children, 75% are US citizens, having been born in this country.
• As much as 76% of the illegal immigrants live in just 9 states.  Those states are:
  • CA, 23%, 3.2 million
  • TX, 13%, 1.8 million
  • FL, 10%, 1.4 million
  • NY, 10%, 1.4 million
  • NJ, 5%, at least 700K
  • AZ, 5%, at least 700K
  • GA, 4%, at least 550K
  • NC, 3%, at least 400K
  • VA, 3%, at least 400K
• Iowa has about 70K, NE about 45K and SD about 5K
• In America, there are 5.3 million illegal immigrant households
• Educational attainment
  • 47% of illegal immigrants have less than a high school diploma (8% for natives)
  • 33% live in poverty (10% for natives)
  • 50% have no health insurance
  • Illegals comprise 6.5% of the labor force, with 48% of the illegals working in blue or gray collar jobs
• 94% of illegal immigrants live in large urgan areas as opposed to just 80% of the native population
• Cost of illegal immigration
  • Most of the costs associated with illegal immigration go into three areas--public education, safety and health
  • The mean income of illegal immigrant households is $30K, median about $36K.  Native household mean income well above $50K
  • Benefits received versus taxes paid
    • In Iowa, illegal immigrant households receive $17,400 more in benefits than they pay in taxes
    • Across the nation, the average is $21,000 per illegal immigrant household
  • The cost of illegal immigration to taxpayers in Iowa is $365 million a year
  • The cost in NE is around $277 million
  • The cost in SD is around $31 million
  • In CA, the cost is around $20 billion a year
• Employment
  • There are 1.1 million legal immigrants allowed in the country each year, nearly all of which can enter the workforce.
  • There are 500K illegal immigrants entering the country every year, for a total of 1.6 million new workers.
  • These numbers then require the economy to generate at least 125K new jobs each month, just to accommodate the new immigrant workforce
  • Thus, the economy, when all labor entrants are included, must produce at least 150K jobs a month.  To move the unemployment numbers, the economy must produce an additional 150K for each .1% of unemployment
  • The difficulty is that nearly all of the immigrants that come into the country lack work skills, language skills and the education to find suitable employment in a service driven economy

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