Hispanic Immigration
In 2022, there were 63.7 million Hispanics living in the U.S., a 1.7 percent increase over 2021. People who identified as Hispanic or Latino in the 2020 census represented 19 percent of the total U.S. population. Approximately 62 percent of the country’s overall Hispanic population as of 2019 are people of Mexican origin. Given the hostile political and criminal environments in their countries, Venezuelans, Dominicans and Guatemalans were the fastest-growing Hispanic origin groups in the U.S. between 2010 and 2021. Mexicans had the slowest growth rate during this time period, in part as a result of Mexicans returning to their homeland. Because U.S. births to Hispanic parents outpaced the arrival of new immigrants between 2010 and 2021, immigrants are a declining share of the U.S. Hispanic population.
Hispanic immigration has been a topic of substantial interest to historians. Beginning in the 1840s when gold was discovered in California, Hispanic emigration to the U.S. is largely the story of economic immigrants, i.e., unskilled manual laborers seeking to improve their lives. In the 1890s, migrant Mexicans flowed into the Southwest to work in new mining and agricultural industries. Towns and businesses north of the Rio Grande were perceived as beacons of opportunity for poorer Mexicans. By the end of the 19th century, 496,000 cultural descendants of original Spanish-origin settlers in Mexico and New Spain lived in the U.S. The earliest Hispanic settlers forged pathways that continue to draw Mexican immigrants seeking work. To this day the size and composition (e.g., the proportion of single men and families, including children) in the flow of immigrants pursuing employment is affected by economic factors in their home country.
A substantial number of Hispanics migrate to America’s borders seeking asylum from crime or political persecution in their home countries. Civil strife in Mexico and Central America has caused many Hispanics to seek refuge in America. For example, war refugees and political exiles created by the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) caused an increase in migration. Further, the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act recognized that Cubans fleeing a communist government had strong asylum cases and, therefore, were eligible for permanent residency in the U.S. Lastly, over 541,000 of the more than two million migrants who arrived at the southern U.S. border in 2022 were from the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras seeking asylum to escape widespread violence and political persecution at home.
Approximately 81% of Hispanics living in the U.S. in 2021 were U.S. citizens. Most of the remainder are considered to be unauthorized immigrants as defined by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security: “all foreign-born non-citizens who are not legal residents . . . that either entered the United States without inspection or were admitted temporarily and stayed past the date they were required to leave.” An increasing portion of unauthorized immigrants migrated from regions other than Central America or Mexico, and entered the U.S. legally but remained here after their visas expired.
Estimating the size of the unauthorized immigrant population is complicated by the fact that it is constantly changing and churning, resulting in estimates that have ebbed or grown significantly over the past 30 years. Using U.S. Census Bureau data, it is estimated that the unauthorized immigrant population was 11.35 million in January of 2022 — a 1.13 million increase over January 2021 when the ongoing border surge began. In 2018, approximately 51 percent of the 11 million unauthorized immigrants were from Mexico. A Pew Research Center survey found that 45 percent of Hispanic adults reported that they knew an individual who is in the U.S. illegally. Further, 44 percent of the respondents were concerned that they themselves, a family member or close friend, could be deported.
Finally, the commercial activity of migrants has real and potential economic effects in both their home countries and the U.S. Remittances (money sent back to an immigrant’s home country) provide substantial financial assistance to friends and family. For example, in 2021 remittances in Mexico amounted to $49.0 billion, the equivalent of 4 percent of GDP of the country’s economy. On the other hand, efforts to deport unauthorized immigrants overlook the fact that most are integrated into the U.S. economy. Removing all undocumented employees from the workforce “would immediately reduce the nation’s GDP by 1.4 percent, and ultimately by 2.6 percent, and reduce cumulative GDP over 10 years by $4.7 trillion.” Every industry would suffer significant damage. Some would experience workforce reductions of up to 18 percent or more, and could cause long-run losses to the GDP amounting to tens of billions of dollars annually for every industry.