US
immigration population hits record 60 million, 1-of-5 in nation
by Paul Bedard |
Census: Immigration
to bust 100-year record, continue surging
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And when their U.S.-born children are added, the number
grows to over 60 million, making the immigrant community nearly one-fifth of
the nation's population, according to federal statistics reviewed by the Center
for Immigration Studies.
Steven Camarota, the
Center's director of research and co-author of the report, said, "The
enormous number of immigrants already in the country coupled with the
settlement of well over a million newcomers each year has a profound impact on
American society, including on workers, schools, infrastructure, hospitals and
the environment. The nation needs a serious debate about whether continuing
this level of immigration makes sense."
Concerns about the explosion of immigration, especially of
illegals, helped Donald Trump win the presidency and has prompted his
administration to crack down on illegal immigration and refugees.
The new report does not break down the percentage of legal
and illegal immigrants in the U.S., although there are an estimated 12 million
undocumented aliens in the country.
It found that since 2000, the U.S. immigrant population has
increased 8 million and a sizable number came from Mexico and Latin America,
the source of most illegal immigrants.
Key findings:
- The nation's immigrant population (legal and illegal)
hit a record 43.7 million in July 2016, an increase of half a million
since 2015, 3.8 million since 2010, and 12.6 million since 2000.
- As a share of the U.S. population, immigrants (legal and
illegal) comprised 13.5 percent, or one out of eight U.S. residents in
2016, the highest percentage in 106 years. As recently as 1980, just one
out of 16 residents was foreign-born.
- Between 2010 and 2016, 8.1 million new immigrants
settled in the United States. New arrivals are offset by the roughly
300,000 immigrants who return home each year and annual natural mortality
of about 300,000 among the existing foreign-born population. As a result,
growth in the immigrant population was 3.8 million 2010 to 2016.
- In addition to immigrants, there were slightly more than
16.6 million U.S.-born minor children with an immigrant parent in 2016,
for a total of 60.4 million immigrants and their children in the country.
Immigrants and their minor children now account for nearly one in five
U.S. residents.
- Mexican immigrants (legal and illegal) were by far the
largest foreign-born population in the country in 2016. Mexico is the top
sending country, with 1.1 million new immigrants arriving from Mexico
between 2010 and 2016, or one out of eight new arrivals. However, because
of return migration and natural mortality among the existing population,
the overall Mexican-born population has not grown in the last six years.
- The states with the largest numerical increases in the
number of immigrants from 2010 to 2016 were Texas (up 587,889), Florida
(up 578,468), California (up 527,234), New York (up 238,503), New Jersey
(up 171,504), Massachusetts (up 140,318), Washington (up 134,132), Pennsylvania
(up 131,845), Virginia (up 120,050), Maryland (up 118,175), Georgia (up
95,353), Nevada (up 78,341), Arizona (up 78,220), Michigan (up 74,532),
Minnesota (up 73,953), and North Carolina (up 70,501).
Paul Bedard, the
Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be
contacted at pbedard@washingtonexaminer.com
More than 52 million Americans live in economically distressed
communities
By Sandy
English
More than 52 million Americans live in economically distressed
communities
By Sandy
English
28 September 2017
A new analysis of Census data shows that
the so-called economic recovery under the Obama administration was an
unmitigated catastrophe for the 20 percent of the American population that live
in the poorest areas of the United States and that gains of jobs and income
have gone overwhelming to the top 20 percent richest areas.
“The 2017 Distressed Communities Report,” published by the Economic Innovation
Group (EIG), analyzes the census data for 2011-2015 for people living in each
of the nearly 7,500 American zip codes according to several criteria.
The EIG’s Distressed Communities Index
(DCI) considers the percentage of the population without a high school diploma,
the percentage of housing vacancies, the percentage of adults working, the
percentage of the population in poverty, the median income ratio (the
percentage of median income that a zip code has for its state), the change in
employment from 2011 to 2015, and the change in the number of businesses in the
same period.
The report divides the findings for zip
codes into five quintiles based on these indicators, rated from worst- to
best-performing: distressed, at risk, mid-tier, comfortable, and prosperous.
The results show that distressed
communities—52.3 million people or 17 percent of the American
population—experienced an average 6 percent drop in the number of adults
working and a 6.3 percent average drop in the number of business
establishments.
“Far from achieving even anemic growth
from 2011 to 2015,” the report notes, “distressed communities instead
experienced what amounts to a deep ongoing recession.”
Further, “fully one third of the
approximately 44 million Americans receiving SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program or food stamps) and other cash public assistance benefits
(such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)) live in distressed
communities.” The report notes that most distressed communities have seen zero
net job growth since 2000.
Residents in these zip codes are five
times more likely to die than those in prosperous zip codes. Deaths from
cancer, pregnancy complications, suicide, and violence are even higher. “Mental
and substance abuse disorders are 64 percent higher in distressed counties than
prosperous ones, with major clusters in Appalachia and Native American
communities where rates exceed four or five times the national average,” the
report continues.
One other important and alarming fact
which the report highlights is that over a third of the distressed zip codes
contain so-called “brownfield” sites—areas which are polluted or contaminated
in some way. Not only do these have impacts on real estate and business
development, they present a whole array of health hazards to the very poorest
Americans.
Distressed communities can be found all
over the United States but are concentrated in the South: 43 percent of
Mississippi’s zip codes are distressed, followed by Alabama, West Virginia,
Arkansas and Louisiana. According to the report, [the South] “is home to a
staggering 52 percent of all Americans living in distressed zip codes—far above
its 37.5 percent share of the country’s total population.”
After this, the Southwest and Great Lakes
region have the largest share. In the Northeast, most distressed communities
tend to be found in urban areas and in the South, primarily in rural areas.
The biggest cities with the largest
numbers of distressed zip codes are Cleveland, Ohio, Newark, New Jersey,
Buffalo, New York, Detroit, Michigan and Toledo, Ohio. Mid-sized cities with
the highest number of distressed zip codes include Youngstown, Ohio, Trenton,
New Jersey, Camden, New Jersey, Gary, Indiana, Hartford, Connecticut and Flint,
Michigan.
Urban counties with the highest number of
distressed zip codes include Cook County in Illinois, with Chicago at its
center, Los Angeles County in California, Harris County in Texas, with Houston
at its center, and Wayne County in Michigan, encompassing Detroit. Most of
these urban areas were once industrial centers and home to the industrial
working class.
Distressed zip codes that have a majority
of minorities living in them are more than twice as likely to be distressed as
zip codes that are majority white. “In total,” the report notes, “45 percent of
the country’s majority-minority zip codes are distressed and only 7 percent of
them are prosperous.” At the same time there are numerous distressed
communities that are almost completely white. A quarter of the total distressed
population is under 18.
The report found that the economic
benefits
of the recovery after the 2008
recessions
have gone to the top quintile of
zip codes,
where the
wealthier layers of the population
live,
including not only the very rich but also
the upper
middle class.
These areas, which the DCI terms
prosperous, and make up roughly 85 million Americans or 27 percent of the US
population, have for the most part the economic wherewithal to finance higher
levels of education, have the lowest housing vacancy, highest percentage of
working adults, and have had the lion’s share of job and business expansion.
“The job growth rate in the top quintile
was 2.6 times higher than nationally from 2011 to 2015, and business
establishments proliferated three times faster than they did at the national
level,” the report notes. “Prosperous zip codes stand worlds apart from their
distressed counterparts, seemingly insulated from many of the challenges with
which other communities must grapple. The poverty rate is more than 20 points
lower in the average prosperous community than it is in the average distressed
one.”
The report makes much less of an analysis
of the other three, middle quintiles, the at risk, mid-tier, and comfortable
categories, but it does note some trends that address the overall trends
nation-wide. “A remarkably small proportion of places fuel national increases
in jobs and businesses in today’s economy. High growth in these local economic
powerhouses buoys national numbers while obscuring stagnant or declining
economic activity in other parts of the country.”
One of the more telling aspects of the
report is that extreme poverty in the US is presided over by both capitalist
parties: Democratic and Republic politicians have equal numbers of distressed
communities in their constituencies. Democrats, in fact, “represent six of the
10 most distressed congressional districts.”
Another observation from the voting data,
and one of the few that looks at conditions beyond the bottom and top
quintiles, is worth quoting in full:
“President Trump accumulated a 3.5 million
vote lead in counties that fell into the bottom three quintiles of well-being
(equivalent to 9.4 percent of all votes cast in these counties). A vast array
of factors determined voting patterns in the 2016 election, but it stands that
the ‘continuity’ candidate performed better in the places benefiting most from
the status quo, while the ‘change’ candidate performed better in the places one
would expect to find more dissatisfaction.”
Broader figures and the historical view of
wealth distribution in the US—that one percent of the population control 40
percent of the wealth or the decades-long decline in the percentage of the
national income that goes to the working class—is not brought out in the report
but the data add to a complete picture of social conditions across the United
States, the character and geographical distribution of social and economic conditions
in a country of more than 320 million.
The portrait provided by the EIG report
is not simply one of increasing misery and poverty for the bottom 20 percent,
and not only one in which only a minority of Americans are achieving anything
like “prosperity,” but of growing and explosive dissent among tens of millions.
Adios, California
A fifth-generation Californian laments his state’s ongoing economic collapse.
By Steve Baldwin
American Spectator, October 19, 2017
What’s clear is that the producers are leaving the state and the takers are coming in. Many of the takers are illegal aliens, now estimated to number over 2.6 million. The Federation for American Immigration Reform estimates that California spends $22 billion on government services for illegal aliens, including welfare, education, Medicaid, and criminal justice system costs. Liberals claim they more than make that up with taxes paid, but that’s simply not true. It’s not even close. FAIR estimates illegal aliens in California contribute only $1.21 billion in tax revenue, which means they cost California $20.6 billion, or at least $1,800 per household.
Nonetheless, open border advocates, such as Facebook Chairman Mark Zuckerberg, claim illegal aliens are a net benefit to California with little evidence to support such an assertion. As the Center for Immigration Studies has documented, the vast majority of illegals are poor, uneducated, and with few skills. How does accepting millions of illegal aliens and then granting them access to dozens of welfare programs benefit California’s economy? If illegal aliens were contributing to the economy in any meaningful way, California, with its 2.6 million illegal aliens, would be booming.
Furthermore, the complexion of illegal aliens has changed with far more on welfare and committing crimes than those who entered the country in the 1980s. Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute has testified before a Congressional committee that in 2004, 95% of all outstanding warrants for murder in Los Angeles were for illegal aliens; in 2000, 23% of all Los Angeles County jail inmates were illegal aliens and that in 1995, 60% of Los Angeles’s largest street gang, the 18th Street gang, were illegal aliens. Granted, those statistics are old, but if you talk to any California law enforcement officer, they will tell you it’s much worse today. The problem is that the Brown administration will not release any statewide data on illegal alien crimes. That would be insensitive. And now that California has declared itself a “sanctuary state,” there is little doubt this sends a message south of the border that will further escalate illegal immigration into the state.
Indeed, California goes out of its way to attract illegal aliens. The state has even created government programs that cater exclusively to illegal aliens. For example, the State Department of Motor Vehicles has offices that only process driver licenses for illegal aliens. With over a million illegal aliens now driving in California, the state felt compelled to help them avoid the long lines the rest of us must endure at the DMV. And just recently, the state-funded University of California system announced it will spend $27 million on financial aid for illegal aliens. They’ve even taken out radio spots on stations all along the border, just to make sure other potential illegal border crossers hear about this program. I can’t afford college education for all my four sons, but my taxes will pay for illegals to get a college education.
. . .
https://spectator.org/adios-california/?utm_source=American+Spectator+Emails&utm_campaign=6e1b467cf4-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_10_20&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_797a38d487-6e1b467cf4-104520165
A fifth-generation Californian laments his state’s ongoing economic collapse.
By Steve Baldwin
American Spectator, October 19, 2017
What’s clear is that the producers are leaving the state and the takers are coming in. Many of the takers are illegal aliens, now estimated to number over 2.6 million. The Federation for American Immigration Reform estimates that California spends $22 billion on government services for illegal aliens, including welfare, education, Medicaid, and criminal justice system costs. Liberals claim they more than make that up with taxes paid, but that’s simply not true. It’s not even close. FAIR estimates illegal aliens in California contribute only $1.21 billion in tax revenue, which means they cost California $20.6 billion, or at least $1,800 per household.
Nonetheless, open border advocates, such as Facebook Chairman Mark Zuckerberg, claim illegal aliens are a net benefit to California with little evidence to support such an assertion. As the Center for Immigration Studies has documented, the vast majority of illegals are poor, uneducated, and with few skills. How does accepting millions of illegal aliens and then granting them access to dozens of welfare programs benefit California’s economy? If illegal aliens were contributing to the economy in any meaningful way, California, with its 2.6 million illegal aliens, would be booming.
Furthermore, the complexion of illegal aliens has changed with far more on welfare and committing crimes than those who entered the country in the 1980s. Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute has testified before a Congressional committee that in 2004, 95% of all outstanding warrants for murder in Los Angeles were for illegal aliens; in 2000, 23% of all Los Angeles County jail inmates were illegal aliens and that in 1995, 60% of Los Angeles’s largest street gang, the 18th Street gang, were illegal aliens. Granted, those statistics are old, but if you talk to any California law enforcement officer, they will tell you it’s much worse today. The problem is that the Brown administration will not release any statewide data on illegal alien crimes. That would be insensitive. And now that California has declared itself a “sanctuary state,” there is little doubt this sends a message south of the border that will further escalate illegal immigration into the state.
Indeed, California goes out of its way to attract illegal aliens. The state has even created government programs that cater exclusively to illegal aliens. For example, the State Department of Motor Vehicles has offices that only process driver licenses for illegal aliens. With over a million illegal aliens now driving in California, the state felt compelled to help them avoid the long lines the rest of us must endure at the DMV. And just recently, the state-funded University of California system announced it will spend $27 million on financial aid for illegal aliens. They’ve even taken out radio spots on stations all along the border, just to make sure other potential illegal border crossers hear about this program. I can’t afford college education for all my four sons, but my taxes will pay for illegals to get a college education.
. . .
https://spectator.org/adios-california/?utm_source=American+Spectator+Emails&utm_campaign=6e1b467cf4-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_10_20&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_797a38d487-6e1b467cf4-104520165
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