WASHINGTON, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- Despite stricter U.S. immigration laws since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the foreign-born population in the United States continues to increase, data released by the U.S. Census Bureau show.
The U.S. foreign-born population totaled 34.2 million people in 2004, up 2.3 percent from 2003, according to the bureau's Current Population Survey.
"We are a nation of immigrants," said Elaine Lacy, professor of history and director of the Consortium for Latino Immigration Studies at the University of South Carolina. Lacy pointed out that immigration patterns have and will continue to "occur over and over again" in the United States.
According to the report, 13.1 million foreign-born people had obtained U.S. citizenship, while 21.1 million had not become naturalized U.S. citizens.
Typically, a foreigner must live in the United States for at least five years before becoming a U.S. citizen, although there are exceptions to U.S. naturalization laws. About 6.1 million foreign-born citizens living in the United State entered the country after 2000.
Steven Camarota, a researcher with the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that advocates restricted immigration to the United States but better conditions for those admitted, found in a study he released last November that Sept. 11 had not affected the number of immigrants to the United States.
"There doesn't appear to be any obvious slowdown," said Camarota.
Camarota found in his study that the illegal-immigrant population had grown by 2 million in the last four years.
"If the illegal-alien population overall can grow by 2 million, it certainly suggests that any terrorists that want to come in and stay illegally face few obstacles," Camarota said.
However, Emilio Parrado, an assistant professor of sociology at Duke University, said immigration laws have been wrongly tied to security issues in recent years.
"Basically September 11th has made things more difficult for immigrants," said Parrado. "It created a climate for immigrants that is very negative."
Parrado said that the way we treat immigrants now determines whether or not immigrants will assimilate on a long-term basis.
"This has a tremendous effect on the immigrants themselves," said Parrado.
Meanwhile, the Census Bureau report found that the Hispanic foreign-born population has risen in recent years, with 53 percent of immigrants to the United States coming from Latin American countries.
Camarota's research also found that the foreign-born population had become less diverse in recent years, with Mexico comprising 31 percent of all immigrants in 2004. This number was a dramatic increase from 1980, when only 16 percent of the foreign-born population was born in Mexico.
"As you know, this population is the largest population in the U.S. right now," said Lacy. "The impact is tremendous in many ways," such as the many economic and cultural effects foreign-born Latinos have on the United States. "They are putting money into the economy."
According to Parrado, foreign-born workers have been vital to the U.S. economy.
"Without immigrants these industries would disappear," said Parrado.
But Camarota disagrees, alleging that the foreign-born population had increased the unemployment rate among the native-born, especially for poorer Americans.
"The idea that America is desperately short of unskilled labor is absurd on its face," said Camarota. "There are millions of native-born Americans that do this type of work."
Camarota's research found that the number of native-born Americans unemployed between 2000 and 2004 went up by 2.3 million. However, the unemployment rate for the foreign-born population went down by the same amount.
"There is probably some job displacement going on," said Camarota. His study found that most of this job displacement occurred in the farming, fishing and forestry, building cleaning and maintenance and construction and extraction industries.
According to Camarota, the United States needs to enforce labor laws and reduce the illegal immigration of less skilled immigrants, or else there will be "very negative implications for the poorest of American workers."
While the majority of the foreign-born people living in the United States are from Latin American countries, a substantial proportion of immigrants were born in other regions of the world, according to the Census Bureau report. The study found that 25 percent of foreign-born immigrants were from Asia, 14 percent from Europe and 8 percent were born in other regions of the world.
The United States as a whole has become more diverse geographically, with the foreign-born population assimilating throughout the country over the last four years.
According to the report, 35.9 percent of all foreign-born citizens lived in the South in 2004, making up the largest geographic area of foreign-born people and outnumbering native-born citizens by 2 percent.
Camarota's study found that the states with the largest increase in immigrant populations from 2000 to 2004 were Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, New Jersey, Maryland, Washington, Arizona and Pennsylvania.
"We're seeing diversification in geographic regions," said Parrado. "We're seeing a lot of Spanish migration to rural areas."
Miami has long been considered a stopping ground for Latino immigrants, but according to Lacy, Latin American immigrants increasingly choose to go to South Carolina or other regions of the United States directly from their home countries, forming a pattern that encourages immigration.
"Migration channels have been established," said Lacy. "After that happens the flow not only increases, but usually gets larger."
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