New York Metro Area Home To 1.2 Million Undocumented Immigrants: Report

NEW YORK, NY — The New York metropolitan area is home to nearly 1.2 million of the nation's 11.1 undocumented migrants, according to a report released by the Pew Research Center on Thursday.

As hundreds of "sanctuary" cities and counties throughout the country prepare to spar with President Donald Trump over his hard-line immigration policies, Pew's new report shows the extent to which undocumented immigrants have clustered in the nation's urban areas.

The report relies on population data from 2014. It estimates that 61 percent of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. reside in just 20 metro areas.

The New York metropolitan area — which includes NYC; major cities in New Jersey and Connecticut; and small parts of Pennsylvania — was home to an estimated 1.15 million undocumented people in 2014, more than any other metro area in the U.S., according to Pew.

Pew, a nonpartisan research tank, also found that about 19 percent of all immigrants in the New York metro area are undocumented — one percentage point below the national average. Across the country, about one in four immigrants is undocumented.

Undocumented immigrants make up 5.7 percent of the New York metro area's total population, the report showed.

NYC is one of hundreds of so-called "sanctuary" cities and counties in the country. In general, government officials in these jurisdictions prohibit local law enforcement from working with federal immigration officers to deport undocumented immigrants, unless they have been charged with serious crimes. At least 39 cities and 364 counties in the U.S. consider themselves "sanctuaries," according to the Immigrant Legal Resource Center.

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio has repeatedly promised to protect the city's sanctuary status under Trump, who signed an executive order on Jan. 25 promising to pull as much federal funding as his advisors deem legally possible from sanctuary jurisdictions.

De Blasio promised to sue Trump if the federal government indeed withheld any money from the city under the executive order.

"President Trump issued an executive order today and its reported purpose was to enhance public safety, but here in New York City and in cities across nation, this executive order could in fact undermine public safety and make it left safe," De Blasio said in January.

On Monday, the New York State Assembly passed a package of bills aimed at protecting immigrants in the state. One of those bills, the New York State Liberty Act, would prohibit local law enforcement from unnecessarily questioning individuals about their immigration status, among other actions. It's unclear whether the bill will pass in the State Senate.

Pew's complete analysis and data sets are available here.

Lead photo by Simone Wilson/Patch