thebigp

You Only Think You Know How Many Illegal Immigrants Live in the US--17jh.,b40
Call any journalist, pundit, anchor, strategist or lobbyist and ask: 1. How many illegal immigrants are in the United States? 2. What is your source for that number?Almost without exception he or she will answer: 1. 11 million. 2. The Pew Research Center.
Nope. Just unquestioned faith. No curiosity as to the source for that iconic value, or the methodology creating it.So the correct answers are: 1. Nobody really knows
If you identify yourself as such, you will not be able to get a job legally, your family won’t get any welfare benefits, you might get thrown in jail and you could be deported back to Scandinavia.Now fill out that form.
Ridiculous? Well, that’s how we get that 11 million figure.
Meet the Players
Three main players were involved in generating that number of 11 million illegal immigrants: Pew Research Center, the Center for Immigration Studies and the Department of Homeland Security. But they were only masseurs of the source data, which comes from the Census Bureau by means of two surveys: the Current Population Survey and the American Community Survey.We need to identify these players.
Pew claims impartiality, but the methodologists for its numbers come from decidedly liberal roots such as the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute. The Center for Immigration Studies approaches the question from the side of more controlled and limited immigration flows. Homeland Security is a bureaucracy with a presidentially appointed secretary who carries out administration policies.The Census Bureau’s surveys are conducted both by mail and in-person visits to selected homes. Neither asks directly, “Are you in the United States illegally?”In fact, the instruction manual for Current Population Survey canvassers states explicitly:
We do not ask for nativity data to identify illegal immigrants. Note that we ask whether a person is a citizen, and that we do not ask whether he/she is legal or not (that is, has a green card or some other legal residence status).
Those who have followed the invasion by illegal immigrants have noticed that, in spite of their own observations and a wide-open southern border, the 11 million number has been used for more than a decade.
Pew, the most-quoted source, has used the figure since 2005. Some Homeland Security references approximating that number go back to 2003.Rather remarkable, given that “official” sources have said the annual illegal entrants over that period range from 300,000 to 3 million in peak years. Even the low estimate means another 3 million illegals added to the 2005 estimate of 11 million, yielding at least 14 million.
Sarah Saldana, who runs Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the chief deportation agency and part of Homeland Security, testified Dec. 2 before Congress that the illegal population could be as high as 15 million. That estimate suggests a potentially bigger problem than the government generally acknowledges.But no one really knows—illegal aliens sneak in.
The Big Unknown
?Study the methodology of Pew, and that of the Center for Immigration Studies and the Department of Homeland Security, and you’ll find a lot of assumptions and circular references.
But even if all the assumptions were reasonably accurate, the original single-source data is highly flawed. The Census Bureau admits that even in the decennial census many people are missed. The enumeration has to be “adjusted” by the agency, too often for political ends rather than mathematical accuracy.All of these estimates rely on what is called the residual method of estimation, which in Pew’s methodology equates to: C (illegal immigrants) = A (total foreign born) – B (estimated number of legal immigrants)
Border-jumpers don’t sign a register. The roughly half of illegals who have overstayed visas are not tracked in any meaningful way, since America has no worthwhile exit controls. Lack of exit controls also affects the accuracy of imputed repatriation numbers.
.In 2005, a Bear Stearns study estimated the total number of illegal immigrants at 20 million using other data perhaps more valid than sole reliance on Census Bureau surveys. These include remittances, school enrollments, housing statistics in immigrant enclaves and Border Patrol apprehension data.
Why Sacrosanct?
.Why, then, has the 11 million figure become so sacrosanct?
Well, professional and institutional reputations are invested heavily in the number, perhaps because with its longevity the public has become comfortable or apathetic. Were it 20 million or more–a larger population than New York state–Americans might be getting really angry.Imagine the reaction if the media reported daily that this 20 million cohort, supplemented by chain migration and family reunification mandates, would swell to 40 million or 50 million in a decade.
A few years ago, I suggested that if 11 million were so accurate, then Congress should pass an amnesty bill strictly limited to exactly 11 million. Everyone beyond that would be committing a felony and subject to imprisonment and deportation. The idea got no takers, suggesting that the experts and their political allies know quite well that the number is much higher.
President Ronald Reagan’s much-heralded amnesty of 1986 estimated about a million illegal immigrants would be eligible. The number turned out to be about 3 million. Would amnesty for 11 million turn out to be 33 million? There is that precedent.
Existential Decisions
The Heritage Foundation has suggested that if given amnesty, 11 million illegal immigrants would cost taxpayers $6 trillion or more over the immigrants’ lifetimes.
While not exactly linear, those costs would double or more should the real count be in the range of 20 million to 30 million. That money could buy a lot of high schools, highways and health care for Americans.
source--the daily signal, william campenni, american communtiy survey, current population survey, sarah saldana, bear sterns, hertiage

dinosaur

dinosaur, when I worked in the construction industry 10 years ago, in d.c. virginia and maryland I estimated illegal migrants working on the job sites at 40 million. They were easy to count because I never saw any americans working there except for the supervisors who were american.... I exaggerate not. Travel from the canadian border to key west and notice the people outside any 24 hr store - all begging for work, multiply that number by a wife and 4 kids and you get the idea.

jer48 Loc: perris ca

same in Ca

Comment Loc: California

By lying to the public Scialist-democrts can more easily pass a comprehensive immigration bill . Comprehensive is the code word for amnesty. Instead amnesty for 11 million it could be as many as 30 million. When Reagen signed the Comprehensive immigration Bill in 198?-- something the figure was 3 million. It turned out to be 10 million. Social-Dumocraps are liars, immoral--CORRUPT as hell. To U and me.