As in the case of any other developed or developing nation, immigration is one of the key driving factors when it comes to population growth in the United States. At a certain point of time, the then President of the United States – Bill Clinton was the famous phrase “the United States has always been endorsed by the immigrant population.” Today, however, things have changed a large extent, immigration, and then was given credit for sculpting the diversity of the nation, is accused of creating a cultural unrest in the United States and a threat to U.S. culture. A look at immigration statistics and facts, and you can not help but notice that the large-scale illegal immigration into the United States is adding to the misery of the nation, while legal immigration is to contribute to the development them. Below are a number of legal and illegal immigration facts that will act as an eye-opener for many people out there.

Immigration Statistics 2010

In the United States, the concept of immigration has always had its ups and downs, and the large scale fluctuation during the Great Depression is by far the best example of the same. In 1929, the total number of immigrants to the United States were 279,678. The number was down to 23,068 immigrants in 1933, when the depression was at its peak. This was the period when the number of people who emigrated from the country more than those who came here. One of the lesser known facts that immigration is the number of legal immigrants accepted as permanent residents in the United States by far the number of such migrants accepted as legal migrants in other countries in the world beyond. Much of the credit for the increase in legal immigration in the United States over the past two decades, goes to the Immigration Act of 1990 as proposed by the George HW Bush.

In 1965, the Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments abolished the quota system that promoted immigration based on nationality. This reform has resulted in large-scale immigration from non-European countries, it was a relatively new trend in America. Ultimately, the total number of European immigrants in the United States accounted for 60 percent in 1970 amounted to 15 percent in 2000. This liberalization of immigration policy in 1965 came as a boon for immigrants. A look at the immigration statistics by country of origin shows that Mexicans – are 23 percent of the total number of immigrants in the U.S. topped the list of immigrants, followed by Chinese, Filipinos and Indians on the second, third and fourth positions respectively. According to the immigration facts and statistics, the number of first generation immigrants in the country, of which 9.6 million in 1970, increased continuously to 38 million within a period of four decades.

Illegal Immigration Statistics 2010

Illegal immigration is one of the main concerns in the United States. The 2000 miles United States and Mexico border is notorious for illegal immigration since a long time. A look at the illegal immigration statistics show that over 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States today. These statistics also revels some surprising facts about illegal immigration in the United States. Almost half of the approximately 8 million immigrants came to the United States between 2000 and 2005 illegally. It is very difficult to monitor such illegal influx of migrants, and most of the figures in the illegal immigration statistics are only estimates. In fact, the real number will be far more higher than these estimates.In the past three decades, the federal government introduced no fewer than seven such amnesty for illegal immigrants. In 2009, the federal government granted legal status of about 1.1 million immigrants and their efforts to the various problems of illegal immigration counter.

That was a significant bit of information on immigration statistics in the United States, with special emphasis on legal migration of people from different countries of the world as well as influx of illegal migrants from neighboring countries. If the United States Census Bureau estimates the population believed the United States as many as 397 million by 2050 if the current trend of immigration continues.