Though much of the focus of immigration reform is on border security, nearly half of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States entered the country legally, according to a Pew Hispanic Center report.
Up to 45 percent of illegal immigrants, or about 5.5 million, came to America on temporary visas and overstayed their time, according to the report.
In the Washington metro area, that percentage might be even greater because of the large population of Central Americans, who, according to the report, represent a higher percentage of overstayers.
Saul Solorzano, executive director of the Central American Resource Center in Washington, said the report’s findings don’t surprise him.
“What surprises me is that so much more attention is being paid to the border,” Solorzano said.
Many Central Americans fled civil war or areas destroyed by hurricanes. Many of those immigrants are drawn to the Washington region by the city’s consulates and embassies and end up taking many of the area’s service industry jobs, he said.
Between 6 million and 7 million immigrants came to the United States by illegally crossing the 2,000-mile-long southern border, according to the report.
Up to 500,000 illegal immigrants entered the U.S. using a border-crossing card, a credit card-style document with a biometric identifier such as a fingerprint. More than 4 million of the new cards were issued between 1998 and 2001 to Mexican nationals to use for up to 30 days within a zone of 25 miles along the border.
At a glance
» The U.S. government has no way to determine whether all foreign nationals admitted on temporary visas return home after the time has expired.
» Thirty-five percent of the Hispanics living in Washington are from Central America. The vast majority, about 11,700 of the 15,800 Central Americans, are from El Salvador.
» About 30 percent of Hispanics in D.C. are from an unknown country of origin.
» Eleven percent of the Hispanics living in Washington are from Mexico, according to the 2000 U.S. Census.
