New Census estimates show a significant slowing of immigration to the United States and the Washington area last year as the economy lost its footing and local law enforcement efforts gained traction.
Maryland’s immigrant growth in 2007 slowed to 1.7 percent from the year before, bringing the state’s total foreign-born population to 694,590. Between 2000 and 2006, growth was about 3.3 percent each year.
In Virginia, growth slowed to about 2.6 percent, or 794,246 foreign-born residents in 2007. Between 2000 and 2005, growth was about 3.4 percent each year.
“The number of legal immigrants have remained pretty high,” said Steven Camarota, director of research at D.C.-based Center for Immigration Studies. “But the numbers seem to suggest a falloff in illegal immigration” of more than 1 million people, he said.
Citing July research reflecting more recent numbers than the Census Bureau’s sweeping national survey, Camerota explained that the decline in illegal immigration came before an uptick in unemployment — evidence that stricter immigration enforcement in places like Prince William County led to the tapering numbers.
Other experts are wary.
“It’s not a conclusive story,” said Jeanne Batalova, an analyst at the Migration Policy Institute.
States like Arizona, Missouri and Arkansas, where laws were recently passed “that some would call restrictive,” continued to see immigrant population growth, Batalova said. At the same time, states with less restrictive policies like Illinois and New Jersey saw declines.
On the ground, however, people in tune with recent immigrants — 80 percent of whom are Hispanic — feel the effect of both heightened security and the hurting economy.
“There’s a lot of fear and misunderstanding” surrounding new policing policies in Loudoun County, said Yvette Castro-Green, director of La Voz of Loudoun, an immigrant advocacy group.
Castro-Green said that although the county’s Hispanic population grew by 365 percent between 1990 and 2000, growth has tapered off and economic discomfort has settled in.
“There’s been a lot of effort put forth to service Hispanic and immigrant groups,” Castro-Green said, but added that she’s seen some families return to their home country “because it’s often virtually impossible, economically.”
