Filipinos comprised the 5th biggest pool – and the top among Asian countries – of illegal immigrants in the United States, the latest Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report revealed.
“Mexico continued to be the leading source of unauthorized immigration to the United States in 2009, representing 62 percent of the unauthorized population,” the DHS report said, “The next leading source countries of unauthorized immigrants in 2009 were El Salvador (530,000), Guatemala (480,000), Honduras (320,000) and the Philippines (270,000).”
The total illegal immigrant population actually decreased last year, from an estimated 11.6 million in January 2008 to 10.8 million in January 2009.
Professor Peter Chua of San Jose State University in California estimated the number of undocumented Filipino immigrants closer to one million.
The DHS arrived at the numbers by subtracting the total foreign-born population (31.2 million) with the total legal resident population (20.5 million) as of January 2009.
The illegal immigrant population expanded by 27 percent from 2000 to 2009, the report added.
Nearly one-fourth of illegal immigrants live in California (where there's an estimated 2.6 million). This is followed by Texas, Florida, New York and Illinois.
The agency said the average unauthorized immigrant is relatively young (25-44 years old) and male (58%).
In 2008, the DHS arrested nearly 380,000 immigrants and deported 358,000.
The report attributed the decrease in illegal immigration to the US economic downturn.
The majority of unauthorized immigrants entered the US before 2000, the report said,
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