hat the unauthorized population grew by roughly 500,000 a year from 1990 to 2000 (INS). If the Pew numbers are correct, this would mean that this growth has actually increased over the past six years. Additionally, it is important to note that this growth represents the net increase in the unauthorized population. Because somewhere between 200,000 and 300,000 unauthorized aliens leave the country, naturalize, or die in any given year, the gross increase in the unauthorized population is actually closer to 750,000 a year (Van Hook et al).
Some of these unauthorized aliens arrived legally into the United States either as tourists, students, or workers, and have overstayed their visas. The Department of Homeland Security has deployed a system known US-VISIT at all Ports of Entry (POE). All aliens presenting themselves for entry at a POE have two fingerprints and a photograph entered into the US-VISIT system. However, the system has yet to be expanded to include aliens leaving the country (DHS). This means that our government has no idea what the identity of the aliens that remain in the country are.
In addition to those aliens that overstay their visas, many enter the country illegally across the border. The number of aliens entering the country illegally across the border has varied over the past decade. Figure 1 shows the number of unauthorized aliens apprehended by the federal government from 1965 to 2004.
Figure 1: Unauthorized Alien Apprehensions, Fiscal Year 1965-2004
Source 1: U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Yearbook on Immigration Statistics, Enforcement, 2004.
Figure 1 shows that the number of aliens apprehended has increased significantly since 1965. However, apprehensions statistics do not show the whole story. While apprehensions declined from 2000-2003, they increased again in 2004 and the historical trend is unmistakable. In the early 1990s, the federal government implemented a stra...