VivirLatino

Those of us in the pro-immigration community are well aware that there is an almost daily barrage of “talking points” that can be truth or flat out lies (Think: “Terrorists are coming over the border!”). That’s why I find lists like this invaluable.

Immigration is at an all-time high, and most new immigrants came illegally.

The historic high came more than a century ago, in 1890, when immigrants made up 14.8 percent of our population. Today, about two-thirds of immigrants are here legally, either as naturalized citizens or as lawful permanent residents, more commonly known as “green card” holders. And of the approximately 10.8 million immigrants who are in the country illegally, about 40 percent arrived legally but overstayed their visas.

It’s worth noting that although the unauthorized immigrant population includes more people from Mexico than from any other country, Mexicans are also the largest group of lawful immigrants. As for the flow of illegal immigrants, apprehensions along the U.S.-Mexico border have declined by more than 50 percent over the past four years, while increases in the size of the illegal population, which had been growing by about 500,000 a year for more than a decade, have stopped. This decline is largely due to the recession, but stepped-up border enforcement is playing a part.

Although I disagree with some of the final conclusions of some of the points (I don’t believe assimilation is a good thing or that calling people in the US without proper documentation “illegal immigrants” repeatedly as this author does is a good thing), even I was surprised by some of the statistics–I didn’t know that Mexicans were the most legalized population–even I have bought into the hype that paints Mexicans as the *most* illegal out of all illegals.

Pass these suckers around to all your “riding the fence” on immigration friends and family. It’s important that the truth is put out there over and over again, especially during these times.