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Illegal immigration declining, study finds

WASHINGTON — The flow of illegal immigration into the United States has declined in the past few years, a study released Thursday found.

The number of illegal immigrants arriving in the United States has dropped from about 800,000 a year earlier this decade, to about 500,000 a year from 2005 to 2008, according to the report by the Pew Hispanic Center, a non-partisan research group in Washington.

The findings reverse a decadelong trend in which more illegal immigrants than legal immigrants arrived in the United States.

“These numbers tell us that the growth has slowed substantially,” said Jeffrey Passel a demographer with the Pew Hispanic Center and co-author of the study. “This is a population that had been growing rapidly for at least 15 years, and the growth has essentially come to a halt in 2008.”

The total number of illegal immigrants appears to have decreased from 12.4 million in 2007 to 11.9million in 2008, the study said. However, the finding is “inconclusive” because of the margin of error in the estimates, the study said.

The study did not include any explanations for the decline in the flow of illegal immigrants, but experts pointed to the struggling economy as a major factor.

The study also found:

1. Illegal immigrants comprise about 4 percent of the U.S. population and about 30 percent of the nation’s foreign-born population. More than 39 million people born in other countries live in the United States.

1. The vast majority of illegal immigrants – four out of five – come from Latin American countries.

1. The number of illegal immigrants from Mexico appears to have leveled off since last year at about 7 million.

Clarissa Martinez, director of Immigration and National Campaigns at the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic civil rights organization, said that the decreased flow of undocumented immigrants is about one thing: the economy.

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