Illegal immigration on the rise in US

Illegal immigration on the rise in US
Believe it or not a research carried out by the Pew Hispanic Centre totally exposed the American security system by revealing that the nation is home to more illegal than legal immigrants.

The report is startling as it claims that presently there are over 34 million illegitimate immigrants in the United States which adds up to 12 per cent of the entire US population. This figure is three times the number reported more than three decades ago in 1970.

Based on a yearly analysis of immigration by means of the Census Bureau surveys, researches found that overall immigration (legal and illegal), was on the rise throughout the 90's. The number was over a million per year in 1992 which went up to 1.2 million in 1997. That wasn't it. A huge surge came towards the end of the millennium in '99 and '00 as the economy was on the up. Numbers recorded were over 1.5 million a year.

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According to the report, the giant increase in the number of immigrants towards the end of the last decade was chiefly due to the fact that the economy had risen drastically and was at its zenith, if only for a fleeting period.

After the Sep 11 attack however things changed due to the economic slowdown. Interestingly, during this recession period, the number of legal immigrants were the ones who mainly turned away. But even as the legitimate populace declined, the figures of unlawful immigrants hardly saw any fall.

In the last two years, as the economy began to bounce back, the migration figures were on the rise yet again with the numbers touching 1.1 million and 1.2 million respectively.

Pew Center's disclosure raises huge concerns about America's security prowess. In fact, just last month, the border security was under intense scrutiny as the governors of Arizon and New Mexico decided to impose emergency on their borders with Mexico referring to the security failings of the federal government.

Even as Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff maintained that the security policies are already under the scanner, the fact remains that the current immigration procedure is completely flawed.

Meanwhile, John Cornyn, chairman of the Senate's Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship Subcommittee demanded modifications in the current immigration policy specifically dealing with eradicating unlawful migration.

This Pew Center report is based on immigration figures between 1992 to 2004 collected from the census data.