Illegal Immigrant Population Fell By 1 Million Since 2010

The Center for Migration Studies of New York has released a new study that estimates there are 10.8 million people in the country illegally. That's a reduction of almost 1 million from the 11.7 million estimated to be living in the United States in 2010. 

Experts say it's impossible to know the exact number of how many people are in the U.S. illegally, making an exact count difficult. CMS attributes the drop to a decrease in the amount of Mexican citizens who entering and staying in the country illegally. According to CMS, the number of Mexicans living in the U.S. between 2010 and 2016 plumetted from 6.6 million to 5.7 million. 

Robert Warren, a senior visiting fellow at CMS said it's not unusual for immigrants to return to their home country. 

"Roughly one out of three immigrants leave," he told the Washington Examiner. "A lot of people want to come here and work for a number of years and start a business ... There is kind of a common impression that everyone wants to come here and no one wants to leave, and that's false."

From 2010 to 2016, six of the top ten states with illegal immigrants saw population declines of more than ten percent. 

Texas was the only state in the United States with a large number of illegal immigrants who saw an increase in the amount of residents. 

Read more with the Washington Examiner.

Photo: Getty Images


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