Houston's Undocumented Immigrant Population Tops 575,000: Pew Research

The topic of undocumented immigrants in America sparks heated debate, and a reported released this month by the Pew Research Center sheds more light on the situation.

Based on Census Bureau data augmented by Pew, Texas is home to more than 1,000,000 undocumented immigrants.

Broken down, the numbers show that the Houston-Woodlands-Sugar Land area accounts for 575,000, Dallas-Ft. Worth 475,000, and Austin-Round Rock 100,000.

According to Pew, unauthorized immigrants account for one in four foreign-born U.S. residents, but Houston and Dallas lead the list of metro areas with higher percentages of undocumented individuals:

They make up a somewhat higher share of immigrants in the Houston (37%), Dallas (37%), Atlanta (33%), Phoenix (37%), Las Vegas (35%), Denver (37%) and Austin (34%) metro areas. They make up a somewhat lower share of all immigrants in the New York (19%), Miami (18%), San Francisco (17%) and San Jose (17%) metro areas.

Since the Trump administration came into power, in January, deportations of unauthorized immigrants has been a major news topic, with reports of groups of individuals being rounded up by U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) agents in large cities across the nation.

Some observers condemn the action as illegal, but ICE officials maintain they are following protocol.

“ICE regularly conducts targeted enforcement operations during which additional resources and personnel are dedicated to apprehending deportable foreign nationals. All enforcement activities are conducted with the same level of professionalism and respect that ICE officers exhibit every day,” ICE officials said in a statement. “The focus of these operations is no different than the routine, targeted arrests carried out by ICE’s Fugitive Operations Teams on a daily basis.”

Houston's mayor, Sylvester Turner, says he runs a "welcoming city," but it is still unclear whether Texas cities will be affected by the Trump administration’s vow to penalize localities that do not cooperate with federal agencies in identifying undocumented immigrants. One of Trump's executive orders promises to cut federal funds to these “sanctuary jurisdictions.” Mayors in several big cities, including Turner, have said they will not comply with the order.

Pew's protocol defines an unauthorized immigrant as someone who either crossed the border illegally or overstayed their visa.

— Image of Houston skyline courtesy Wikimedia Commons