How do illegal immigrants enter the united states

Over the course of the s Warren analyzed internal data files for I arrival and departure forms and developed a methodology for estimating the size and key characteristics of the overstay population. This methodology was refined over time with revisions suggested by the GAO and academic researchers. The last time Warren applied his methodology to data gathered from the I forms was in , and if the full data collection and analysis effort has been repeated by anyone in the government since then, the results have not been made public.

Warren used the data he had available in to calculate what countries visa overstayers had come from and when they had arrived in the U. He then applied those calculations to his estimates of the size of the unauthorized population in He concluded that the unauthorized migrant population totaled 5 million and that 2.

The estimates suggest that out of an unauthorized population of See Appendix A. Unfortunately, there is little hard data on which to base estimates of the number of unauthorized migrants who entered the country by using a Border Crossing Card. But, given that the traffic is so enormous—as noted above, an estimated million entries in —if even a minuscule share of these individuals overstayed, they would contribute significantly to the unauthorized population.

Starting in , a new credit-card style document with a biometric identifier such as a fingerprint was issued for regular border crossers. Between and the deadline for the replacement of old cards, the Department of State issued more than 4 million of the new cards to Mexican nationals.

These authorize visits of up to 30 days within a border zone of 25 miles along the border in California, Texas and New Mexico and 75 miles of the border in Arizona. Cardholders who want to travel further or stay longer must apply for an exception and file an I form. Cardholders can easily overstay their visits since, unlike with I forms, there is no attempt to check on whether the border crossers leave. Moreover, border crossing cards have been used fraudulently by others to cross because the biometric identifiers are not checked for all border crossers or at all ports of entry.

The Center estimates that 1. Assuming that the rate of overstays for Mexicans holding Border Crossing Cards is similar and that this population has built up over time, produces an estimate of , to , cardholders who have become part of the unauthorized migrant population.

Robert Warren, formerly of INS, developed methods for estimating the number of visa overstays using INS databases with matched arrival and departure forms Warren He used these estimates in combination with others to estimate the size of the unauthorized migrant population.

In Warren , the proportion of overstays by period of arrival and countries of birth as of are as follows:. Applying these assumptions to estimates of the unauthorized migrant population based on the March Current Population Survey yield an estimate of 4.

The estimates for are based on other data for trends in the growth of the foreign born population in general and the unauthorized population in particular. To vote, all states but one require that a person first register to vote. There are many serious safeguards in place to ensure that only citizens can vote ; that anyone who attempts to subvert this rule is subject to severe punishment; and that any such attempts never result in the counting of unauthorized votes.

Some people seek to exploit misunderstandings of the U. In fact, immigrants help create new jobs. In addition to buying U. States with large numbers of immigrants report lower unemployment rates for everyone. Everyone pays sales taxes on goods they purchase and property taxes on the homes they buy, and more than half of all undocumented immigrant households file income tax returns using Individual Tax Identification Numbers.

Some individuals and anti-immigrant activists claim that most immigrants in the U. As of , there were an estimated Those aiming to sow fear about the rising number of immigrants in the U. While there are more immigrants living in the U. The percentage of immigrants in the overall population is not much different than many other times throughout our history. In fact, the percentage of immigrants in the U.

Today, immigrants make up approximately During those periods, immigrants successfully became part of U. Some claim that immigrants do not abide by the law. They cite anecdotal evidence or individual cases where immigrants have done something unlawful and use these cases to cast all immigrants as criminals.

Study after study has shown that immigrants — regardless of where they are from, what immigration status they hold, and how much education they have completed — are less likely than native-born citizens to commit crimes or become incarcerated. According to the U. Chamber of Commerce, while the overall percentage of immigrants and the number of undocumented immigrants in the U.

More recent population and crime data from the Pew Research Center reveals the continuation of this trend. Studies have consistently found that immigrants are less likely to be incarcerated than native-born Americans and that there is a negative correlation between levels of immigration and crime rates. Other studies have found that crime rates are lowest in states with the highest immigration growth rates, and that states with larger shares of undocumented immigrants tend to have lower crime rates than states with smaller shares.

Some suggest that immigrants use too many public benefits or take advantage of the social safety net provided to citizens. In fact, most immigrants who come to the U. Moreover, many studies have shown that, on average, immigrants pay more in taxes than they receive in benefits. With very few exceptions such as access to medical care for victims of human trafficking , undocumented immigrants, temporary residents, and even newly-arrived permanent residents are not eligible for federal public benefits such as Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, and food stamps.

Green card holders generally are not entitled to these benefits until they have been in the country in permanent resident status for five years or longer. Entering into a valid, bona fide real, not sham marriage with a U. An immediate relative is theoretically eligible for a U. However, your current illegal status in the U. If you are in the United States illegally because you stayed past the expiration date on a valid visa, rather than having entered illegally without inspection , consider yourself lucky: Your legal entry qualifies you for an exception, under which you should be able to apply for your marriage-based green card without leaving the United States, using a procedure called " adjustment of status.

If, however, your most recent entry into the United States was illegal; for example, you crossed the U. That's the law's way of punishing people for unlawful entry. The exception is if you are covered by some very old laws, such as what's called "Section i " get a lawyer to analyze this.

If you aren't eligible to use the adjustment of status procedure, you will have to attend the interview for your green card which is the last step in the application process at an overseas U. However, at that point the consulate could penalize you for your illegal U. The penalty is either to spend three years outside the United States if you stayed in the U. If you haven't yet been in the United States illegally for six months or more, you might want to leave right away in order to make use of the consular processing possibility.

If you have already spent more than six months in the United States illegally, talk to an immigration lawyer. You might qualify for a "waiver," legal forgiveness, ideally on Form IA if no other grounds of inadmissibility are a hurdle in your case.

A waiver would allow you to reenter the United States right away after your consular processing interview, but this waiver is hard to get.

You would need to prove that your being denied the immigrant visa green card would cause extreme hardship to one or more of your U. Getting married to a lawful permanent U.

That means you'd have to go through " consular processing " as described above, with all the risks that entails. If you serve honorably and on active duty with the U. Armed Forces during one of the wars or conflicts named below, the law allows you to apply for U. You don't have to go through the usual step of applying for a green card first.