THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 9, 1997 TAG: 9702090083
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: THE NEW YORK TIMES
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: 65 lines
The estimated number of immigrants living in the United States illegally has increased by about 1.1 million people in the past four years, to a total of 5 million people, the Immigration and Naturalization Service said Friday.
The agency said its estimate of the average annual influx of immigrants who overstayed their visas or entered illegally slowed in the four-year period ended in 1996 as compared with the four-year period ended in 1992, but only to 275,000 immigrants a year, from 281,000 a year.
``The important thing is there hasn't been very much of a decline in illegal immigration, if any, in recent years,'' said Jeffrey Passel, a demographer who studies immigration trends at the Urban Institute, a research group.
In response to a growing popular resentment against illegal immigrants, President Clinton last year signed into law a Republican-sponsored bill that cracked down on undocumented foreigners, in part by hiring more agents for the U.S. Border Patrol.
Even before that legislation, the immigration service's annual budget had increased to $3.1 billion this year from $1.5 billion four years ago. But as the new law takes effect and the immigration service enjoys its new financing, Republican critics on Friday challenged the administration's commitment to enforcing the nation's borders.
``Congress doubled the INS budget, but I'm not sure we're getting double our money's worth,'' said Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, who last year was author of the immigration bill in the House.
Smith and Gov. Pete Wilson, a Republican of California, complained Friday that Clinton, in his newly proposed budget for the fiscal year 1998, would hire only 500 more Border Patrol agents, even though Congress authorized hiring 1,000 new agents. Administration officials had embraced the congressional goal last year.
But immigration agency officials said Friday they were coping with a legacy of neglect left by two Republican administrations. Only now, these officials said, is the immigration service beginning to make inroads in combating illegal immigration.
The figures the immigration service announced Friday are estimates based on Census Bureau data and the numbers of immigrants the government knows are in the country legally. The 5 million figure has a margin of error of plus or minus 400,000 people. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
Estimated total of undocumented aliens in the top 10 states. Also
included are estimates from 1992, the last time the Immigration and
Naturalization Service projected illegal alien population totals.
State 1996 Totals 1992 Totals
California 2,000,000 1,600,000
Texas 700,000 530,000
New York 540,000 410,000
Florida 350,000 270,000
llinois 290,000 220,000
New Jersey 135,000 105,000
Arizona 115,000 95,000
Massachusetts 85,000 65,000
Virginia 55,000 42,000
Washington 52,000 42,000
KEYWORDS: ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS