What's Your Immigration IQ?

Under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, everyone born in the United States is a U.S. citizen by birth, regardless of the nationality or legal status of their parents (the only exception is for children of diplomats).

Of the estimated 40 million immigrants living in the United States, about 70% are present lawfully, mostly as naturalized U.S. citizens or Lawful Permanent Residents. About three in ten are present unlawfully.

Based on the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Plyler v. Doe in 1982, children have the right to attend public schools for primary and secondary education regardless of their or their parents' legal status.

Incarceration rates for foreign-born individuals are much lower than for native-born U.S. citizens: among men ages 18-39 (which is the category that covers the vast majority of those incarcerated in the U.S.), only 0.7% of immigrants are incarcerated, compared to 3.5% of native-born U.S. citizens, and crime rates have actually fallen significantly in areas where the number of immigrant residents has increased.

The Social Security Administration estimates that three out of four undocumented workers in the U.S. has payroll taxes deducted from their paychecks, which accounted for $15 billion paid into the Social Security system each year in recent years. Undocumented immigrants also pay state and local property taxes ($1.6 billion in 2010), state income taxes ($1.2 billion in 2010), and sales taxes ($8.4 billion in 2010). However, undocumented immigrants are ineligible for some of the benefits which these taxes pay for, such as for receiving a Social Security retirement benefit or receiving most federal means-tested public benefits.

Those five states alone are home to more than 6.5 million undocumented immigrants, more than half of the total undocumented population nationally.

Almost all economists--96% of those surveyed by the Wall Street Journal--think that illegal immigration has benefited the U.S. economy on the whole. That is because immigrants contribute as workers in jobs that tend to complement, rather than compete with, the jobs that most American citizens are qualified and/or willing to do. Immigrants also contribute to the U.S. economy as taxpayers (see question 15), consumers, and entrepreneurs (immigrants are significantly more likely than native-born U.S. citizens to begin small businesses, and 40% of Fortune 500 companies were begun by immigrants or their children).

Marrying a U.S. citizen does not automatically confer legal status. While a U.S. citizen does have the right under current law to petition for his or her spouse to obtain Lawful Permanent Resident status, this request could be denied if the immigrant has committed certain crimes, has been unlawfully present in the United States (with certain exceptions), is likely to be a "public charge" (requiring the use of taxpayer-funded programs to sustain him/herself), or for various other reasons, and the process is not automatic in any case.

Undocumented immigrants are ineligible for federal financial aid. Private institutions may grant financial aid to those without legal status if they choose to do so, and states may determine whether or not to allow undocumented immigrants to pay in-state rates for public universities, but the federal government's financial aid programs are strictly for U.S. citizens and certain immigrants present lawfully in the country.

A 2012 report from the Department of Homeland Security found that 56% of the undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. as of January 2011 had been here since prior to the year 2000. In fact, the number of undocumented immigrants has actually declined in recent years, as many have returned to their countries of origin (whether voluntarily, because of a lack of economic opportunities in the U.S., or involuntarily, through deportation) and very few new immigrants are attempting to enter unlawfully relative to a decade ago.

While the City of Chicago continues to be a "gateway city" to which many immigrants from around the world arrive, as of the 2000 census, there are more immigrants residing in the suburbs of Chicago than within the city limits. This is both because many immigrants have moved from the city to the suburbs and because, increasingly, newly-arrived immigrants are settling in the suburbs rather than the city.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the non-partisan Pew Research Center both estimate that there are between 11 and 12 million unauthorized immigrants currently living in the United States.

Presently, about 12.8% of the U.S. population is foreign-born. A century ago, about 15% of the U.S. population was foreign born.

Prior to the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, there was no federal immigration law limiting who could migrate lawfully to the United States, and thus all migration was legal. The Chinese Exclusion Act, which was the law from 1882 until it was repealed in 1943, created the first legal restrictions on migration to the United States, and thus resulted in the first illegal immigration as well.

Evidence of legal status is a requirement to receive SNAP (food stamp) benefits. In fact, even many immigrants who have Lawful Permanent Resident status are ineligible for these benefits.

19.8% of Nevadans are foreign-born, according to the U.S. Census bureau, compared to 12.8% of the overall U.S. population.

As of 2011, Arizona was home to 360,000 undocumented immigrants, compared to 400,000 in North Carolina, according to U.S. Department of Homeland Security estimates.

According to estimates from the Department of Homeland Security, about 59% of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. are from Mexico. However, there are also millions of undocumented immigrants from other countries. For example, about 2 in 9 Korean immigrants are undocumented, as is 1 in 6 Vietnamese, Chinese, or Filipino immigrants living in the United States and 1 in 7 Indian immigrants.

It is a violation of civil (not criminal) law to be present unlawfully in the United States, so it is inaccurate to say that it is a crime to be present unlawfully. It is a misdemeanor crime to enter the United States unlawfully; however, at least 40% of undocumented immigrants entered the country lawfully, on a valid visa, and overstayed (and even most of those who did enter unlawfully have never been charged with that offense, so it is imprecise to call them criminals until they have been convicted of the offense).

Under U.S. and international law, refugees are individuals who have fled their country of origin because of persecution that was on account of their race, religion, political opinion, national origin, or social group. Those who have fled because of poverty, a natural disaster, or for other reasons are not considered refugees under the law, so this full statement is false.