How the Official Tally of ILLEGALS is Estimated .. and Why It Matters

Illegal immigrants living in the U.S. have obvious reasons to want to avoid detection, even as the government and others try to figure out how many are here.

The Department of Homeland Security in its official tally says 11.4 million unauthorized immigrants live here. The Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C., puts the figure at around 11.2 million. And the Center for Migration Studies, a nonprofit based in New York, calculates that it’s just over 11 million.

Accurate estimates of the number of illegal immigrants 
in the U.S. are crucial for government budget planners. 
Here, a U.S. Border Patrol agent watches over a fence 
on the Mexico border. Photo: Getty Images

Keeping track is important for a variety of reasons. Schools, for example, must enroll K-12 students regardless of immigration status. Unauthorized immigrants without insurance will likely visit emergency rooms for health care, the cost covered in part by Medicaid. And changes in the population may influence border enforcement and other policies.

President Barack Obama focused attention on the issues in November when he unveiled a series of executive actions that would protect up to 5 million illegal immigrants from deportation. The move was temporarily halted by a federal judge in response to a lawsuit questioning the president’s authority, so for now, we don’t know whether the estimated number of beneficiaries would have proved accurate.

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But it raises the question: How do demographers count a population that doesn’t wish to be found?

Techniques for calculating the number of illegal immigrants have been around for at least 30 years. Traditionally, the calculation involves something called residual methodology—or, as most of us would think of it: subtraction.

Read the rest of the story HERE and follow links to related stories below:

Behind the Numbers: Drilling Down on Illegal Immigration

Estimates of the Unauthorized Population for States

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