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New York

Summary Demographic State Data (and Source)
Population (2008 CB estimate):	19,490,297
Population (2000 Census):	18,976,457
Foreign-Born Population (2008 FAIR est.):	4,253,425
Foreign-Born Population (2000 Census):	3,868,133
Share Foreign-Born (2008 FAIR est.):	21.8%
Share Foreign-Born (2000):	20.4%
Immigrant Stock (2000 CB est.):	6,759,000
Share Immigrant Stock (2000 est.):	35.6%
Naturalized U.S. Citizens (2006 CB est.):	2,156,329
Share Naturalized (2000):	51.6%
Legal Immigrant Admission (DHS 1997-2006):	1,161,179
Refugee Admission (DHS 1997-2006):	57,280
Illegal Alien Population (2008 FAIR est.):	1,000,000
Cost of Illegal Aliens - (2006 FAIR)	$5,155,000,000
Projected 2050 Population - (2006 FAIR):	29,301,275

New York: Census Bureau Data

STATE POPULATION

Using the Current Population Survey, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that in July 2008 New York’s population had increased to 19,490,297 residents, i.e., an annual average increase of about 61,910 residents since 2000. That is a rate of increase of about 0.3 percent per year.

According to the 1990 Census, 50 percent of all newcomers to the state since 1985 (over the previous five years) were from abroad, i.e., immigrants. They numbered 772 thousand. That number of people is larger than total state population of 6 of the states and the District of Columbia in 1990. Over the four-year period 1990 to 1994 an additional nearly 650 thousand new immigrants had arrived in the state according to the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey. For both periods, the average of new immigrants is about 155,000 per year.

NET INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION (NIM)

Based on the Current Population Survey, the Census Bureau estimated that between the 2000 Census and July 2008 the state’s population increased by about 876,970 residents from net international migration (more foreign-born arriving than leaving). That was an annual average increase of about 105,660 residents, i.e., more than the total increase (171%), and that does not include the children born to the immigrants after their arrival in the United States).

The net outflow of New Yorkers in domestic migration was the subject of a study by the Empire Foundation for Policy Research. The finding was that the state is losing many young, highly skilled workers while less educated, less skilled immigrants stream in to take jobs that pay less.

The 2000 Census found 18,976,457 persons resident in New York. This was an increase of 986,002 persons above the 1990 Census. The rate of increase (5.5%) was significantly below the median rate (13.1%) for the country.

The 2000 population was about 835,000 more persons than the Census Bureau had expected to find in the state in 2000 when it issued its most recent state population projections in 1996. The significance of this is that the Census Bureau has concluded that much of the shortfall in their population estimates during the 1990s was due to an underestimation of the illegal alien population.

Between 1980 and 1990 New York's overall population grew by about 2.5 percent (from about 17,558,165 to 17,990,455 residents).

FOREIGN-BORN POPULATION

Based on the American Community Survey (ACS), the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that the foreign-born population of New York was 4,157,103 persons in 2006. The ACS is a large-scale, continuous sampling process designed to replace the need for a long-form in the 2010 Census. However, because the ACS does not have the same follow-up procedures as the Census to include non-respondents, it may underestimate the foreign-born population.

FAIR estimates that the foreign-born population of New York was about 4,253,425 residents in July 2008. This meant a foreign-born population share of 21.8 percent. The amount of change since the 2000 Census indicates an average annual rate of increase in the foreign-born population of about 46,420 people, which is three-fourths (75%) of the state’s annual average population increase. Since 2000, the foreign-born population has increased by ten percent compared to a 0.9 percent increase in the native-born population.

Immigration also contributes to population growth through the children born to immigrants in this country. Nationally the share of births to the foreign-born is about double their share of the population. A 43.6 percent share of the state’s current births is large enough to account for about 106,345 births a year. Combining the increase in the foreign-born population and estimated immigrant births suggests that immigration may account for nearly 152,850 persons added to the state’s population annually, i.e., more than double (247%) the state’s overall population increase.

A comparison of the increase in the immigrant population from 1990 with the change in the overall population during the same period shows that immigrant settlement directly accounted for all of the state's overall population increase over that decade. The effect of immigration on population change is still greater when the children of the immigrants born here after their arrival are included with their immigrant parents in the calculation.

The 2000 Census found that 40.4 percent of New York's foreign-born population had arrived in the state since 1990. This demonstrates the effects of the current mass immigration, although it is a lower share than the national average (43.7%).

An indicator of the change in the immigrant population may be seen in data on the share of the population that speaks a language other than English at home. Between 1990 and 2000 the share of non-English speakers at home (over age 5) in New York increased by more than one-eighth, from 23.3 percent to 27.5 percent. Less than half (46.6%) of those who said they spoke a language other than English at home in 2000 also said they spoke English less than very well.

Speakers of Foreign Languages (at home in New York in the 2000 Census)
Spanish	2,416,045
Chinese	304,155
Italian	294,270
Russian	218,765
French	174,080
French-Creole	114,745
Yiddish	113,515
Polish	111,730
Korean	102,105
German	92,685
(Source: Census Bureau report: Language Spoken at Home for the Population 5 Years and Over, April 2004)

The Census Bureau’s American Community Survey found that in 2006, the foreign born population was 4,178,962 residents, an increase of 8.0% percent since 2000. In comparison, the foreign-born population changed from 2,851,861 to 3,868,133 residents between 1990 and 2000, an increase of 35.6 percent.

The ten countries below constituted approximately 36.1% of the foreign-born population in New York in 2006. China accounted for 8.5% alone.

Foreign-Born Change: Top Ten Countries 1980-2000
Rank	Country	1980		Country	1990		Country	2000
1	Dom.Rep	241,941		Dom.Rep	408,086		China	354,379
2	Italy	190,305		China	301,735		Mexico	230,299
3	Jamaica	146,829		Jamaica	226,470		Jamaica	227,719
4	China	128,133		Sov.Un.	189,903		India	144,417
5	Sov.Un.	98,576		Mexico	161,189		Korea	101,762
6	Germany	92,322		Italy	147,729		Colombia	99,874
7	Poland	88,230		Guyana	142,154		El Salvador	88,066
8	Haiti	87,215		Ecuador	139,226		Phillipines	87,407
9	Colombia	82,767		Haiti	125,475		Russia	86,999
10	Guyana	81,386		Colombia	111,727		Poland	86,279
	All Others	1,614,157		All Others	1,914,439		All Others	2,671,761
	Total	2,851,861		Total	3,868,133		Total	1,507,201

THE IMMIGRANT STOCK

The Census Bureau estimated that there were about 6,759,000 people in New York in 2000 who were "immigrant stock." That is a term that refers to immigrants and their children born here after their arrival. Based on that estimate, and the population of 18,976,457, the immigrant stock share of the state's population was 35.6 percent the third highest in the country.

As the graph below shows, the amount of New York’s population change due to the increase in the foreign stock is rising rapidly. Over the past 34 years the new immigrants and children born to them have added about 5,460,800 people to the population. Over this period, the increase in the foreign stock has accounted for all of the state’s population increase and then some (541.2%), because the state had a net loss of native-born residents.

NATURALIZATION

Data from the 2006 American Community Survey indicate that 2,156,329 residents, or 51.6 percent, of the foreign-born population in New York were citizens, compared to 1,783,744 residents, or 46.1 percent, in 2000.

Nationally, 40.3 percent of the foreign-born population was citizens in 2000 and 42.0 percent were citizens in 2006.

POPULATION PROJECTION

New York -- Projected Population in 2050: Projection Scenarios

Amnesty+	High-trend	Low-trend	Zero-net
29,301,275	27,033,475	25,377,912	17,924,200

New York's projected population in 2050 could range anywhere from about 18 million to over 29 million residents. The 11 million difference between these extremes depends on whether policies aimed at immigration stability are adopted or, instead, currently advocated policies that would accommodate today's illegal alien population, allow a new stream of guest workers and increase legal immigration are adopted.

Without any change in immigration policy or enforcement, i.e., with the current trend in large-scale legal and illegal immigration, the state's population is likely to increase from today's about 19 million residents to around 25 to 27 million persons in 2050 - an increase of 32 to 41 percent.

The largest difference from the current trend comes in comparison with a zero-net immigration scenario (when arriving immigrants balance those who are departing). In that case, the population would drop by about one million residents, about 5.8 percent. If, however, the currently proposed immigration expansion and illegal alien accommodation proposals were adopted - the amnesty/guest worker/immigration increase scenario - the projected population would increase by about 10 million over the next 45 years - an increase of more than 52 percent.

New York -- Projected Population in 2050: Cohorts

1970 Pop.	Post-'70 Stock	Legal Post-'04	Illegal Post-'04	Amnesty+
12,005,354	5,918,845	6,950,338	2,158,938	2,267,800

The projection indicates that the population that was already in the country in 1970 - before the effects of the 1965 major change in immigration law - will be decreasing. This trend is contributed to by native New Yorkers leaving the state. There is projected to be nearly 1.7 million resident drop, i.e. a 12 percent population decrease in this cohort over the 45 years.

Post-1970 immigrants are projected grow by about 577,000 - by 11 percent. This growth is influenced by the larger average family size of these immigrants to the state. At the beginning of the projection, this post-1970 immigrant cohort already accounted for more than 5.3 million of the state's residents. By 2050, this cohort is projected to rise to more than 5.9 million residents simply on the basis of succeeding generations being larger than that of their forebears.

Without any change in the immigration laws, current mass immigration will continue into the state. New York has had an average of about 117,000 legal immigrant admissions per year between 1994 and 2003. The largest share has been Hispanic (30.4%), with the Dominican Republic being the largest single source country. Immigration from Asian countries has amounted to slightly fewer (29.4%) of the immigrant admissions, leaving immigration from countries with predominantly white populations at about 21 percent and from countries with predominantly black populations in Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America at 19.3 percent. We project that new immigrants and their children from all sources will add nearly 7 million residents to the state's population over the next 45 years if current trends remain unchanged.

We estimate that New York's illegal alien population now numbers nearly 594,000 persons. The continued addition of illegal immigrants over the next 45 years, assuming it continues at current rates, is projected to add more than 2.1 million persons to the population from newcomers and their offspring.

Finally, we project that proposals for amnesty and other provision that are currently being advocated, if adopted, would add more than a further 2.2 million persons to the state's population over the next 45 years. This would result from the family members of amnesty recipients, increased legal immigration, and increased long-term guest worker residents.

New York -- Projected Population in 2050: Demographic Change

White, not Hispanic	Mexican	Other Hispanic	Black	Asian	Other
10,633,069	2,134,226	6,700,692	5,297,523	4,232,027	303,739

The rate of population change for the various scenarios depends on the size and demographic composition of the influx of immigrants, and the differential rates of fertility. The following projections are based on the highest scenario, i.e., amnesty/guestworker increases.

Non-Hispanic whites in New York over the period of this projection decline by more than half a million persons, or 4.7 percent. This trend is influenced in part by low fertility, low immigration, and net migration to other states.

The state's fastest growing immigrant sector is projected to be Asian if current trends remain unchanged. It is projected to grow by more than 2.7 million residents (184%). Hispanics are projected to increase by a larger amount - about 5.5 million - but a lower rate of increase (176%).

Blacks are projected to increase by a more moderate 70 percent as a result of adding about 2.2 million residents.

NET INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION

The Census Bureau estimates that New York's population increased by 3,000 over the last year (ending in July 1997). Compared to that overall increase, net international migration was estimated to have increased 117,528. Thus immigration accounted for all of the state's population increase. New York had the second greatest net change from immigration in the country (behind only California).

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New York: Extended Immigration Data

REFUGEE SETTLEMENT

New York has received 57,280 refugees over the most recent ten fiscal years (FY'97-'06), with 2,559 arriving in FY’06.

 

Under the Office of Refugee Resettlement's (HHS/ORR) assistance funding for FY'02 $5,706,650 is available for refugee employment training and other services programs in New York based on a three-year refugee settlement program covering 22,738 refugees (an average of $251 per refugee). This allocation does not include a larger share (55%) of funding programs for communities heavily affected by recent Cuban and Haitian entrants, communities with refugees whose cultural differences make assimilation especially difficult, communities impacted by federal welfare reform changes, educational support to schools with significant refugee students, and discretionary grants. ORR grants for FY’05 and FY’06 respectively were $17,352,149 and $20,289,344.

IMMIGRANT CHILDREN

In 2000 nearly one-third of all of New York's children are either foreign born or the child of an immigrant. Seven percent are first-generation immigrants (foreign born) and 24 percent are second-generation (a child of an immigrant).
(Source: "Check Points," The Urban Inst. Sept. 2, 2000).

FOREIGN STUDENTS

The 2004/05 annual report of the Institute of International Education (IIE) lists the number of foreign post-secondary students in New York as 61,944. The New York MSA ranks 1st in the country in foreign student population Many schools in New York have major concentrations: Columbia University (5,278, 22.2%), New York University (5,140 13.5%), Cornell University (3,119, 16%), Syracuse University (2,200, 12.1%), SUNY Stony Brook Unviersity (2,146, 9.6%), The New School (1,744, 20.0%), CUNY Borough of Manhattan Community College (1,660, 8.8%) D’Youville College (1,493, 55.4%), Nassau Community College (1,235, 5.9%), CUNY Baruch College (1,205, 7.7%) NY Institue of Technology at Old Westbury (1,166, 11.1%)University of Rochester (1,140, 15.7%), CUNY City College of New York (1126, 9.0%), CUNY Queensborough Community College (1,117, 9.0%), SUNY Fashion Institute of Technology (1087,16.3%), CUNY Hunter College (1,077, 5.2%) and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1,003,12.1%). The chart below shows the sharp increase in foreign students attending school in New York from 1960-2000.

LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS

You can view a listing of local immigration reform groups here.

STATE CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION VOTING RECORD

You can view the voting record of your representatives in Congress regarding immigration issues in our voting report section.

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New York: Immigrant Admissions

New York Immigrant Admissions by Fiscal Year
1997	123,716
1998	96,559
1999	96,979
2000	106,061
2001	114,116
2002	114,827
2003	89,538
2004	102,390
2005	136,828
2006	180, 165
Total	1,161,179

Recent immigrant admissions have slightly increased by 47 percent since adoption of the current immigration system in 1965. During the 1965-'69 period, annual admissions averaged about 84,970 immigrants. During the 2002-'06 period, admissions averaged about 124,750 immigrants.

The charts below show recent immigrant admissions and the cumulative immigrant admissions data since 1965. The number of annual admissions has ranged from 69,011 in FY'65 to 189,589 in FY'90 (influenced by the amnesty for illegal aliens adopted in 1986). The cumulative total of admissions to New York between fiscal years 1965 and 2002 was about 4,688,565 immigrants.

 

The data for fiscal years 1989-91 were artificially raised by the inclusion of former illegal aliens who were amnestied in 1986. According to INS data (1991) the number of amnesty applicants from New York was 171,200 (118,327 pre-1982 residents and 52,873 agricultural workers).

The data for FY'95 and FY'97-'99 were artificially low because the INS did not issue green cards to all the eligible applicants for adjustment of status who were already in the United States. In those four years, new immigration could have registered as much as 30 percent higher, if the INS had kept up with its workload.

Beginning with FY'01, the INS began to increase admissions as a result of reducing the size of the backlog of Section 245(i) adjustment of status cases, i.e., amnesty, for illegal aliens.

INS DATA BY NATIONALITY: FY'93 - FY'02

The INS data below are furnished for nationals of the countries with the largest number of immigrants admitted or adjusted to legal residence each year since 1993. The absence of data means that the total number of admissions to the United States by nationals of that country was not enough to merit detailed reporting in that year.

The nationalities may change each year, so the totals in some cases will not reflect all the immigrants of that nationality who have become legal immigrants in Wyoming during this period.

The Department of Homeland Security website has detailed data on immigrant admissions since FY’03 by year and by country. (See http://www.dhs.gov/ximgtn/statistics/data/dslpr.shtm).

Immigrant Admissions by Fiscal Year
Country	FY'93	FY'94	FY'95	FY'96	FY'97	FY'98	FY'99	FY'00	FY'01	FY'02	Total
Bangladesh	-	-	-	4,511	4,909	4,795	3,228	3,491	-	2,394	23,328
Canada	1,391	1,277	912	1,061	890	755	699	1,153	1,148	1,096	10,382
China *	16,718	13,914	13,197	12,481	11,074	10,227	10,111	10,458	8,757	11,296	118,233
Colombia	3,674	2,888	2,590	3,340	3,350	2,823	2,526	2,459	2,652	2,861	29,163
Cuba	315	247	331	452	497	322	265	561	512	449	3,951
Dom. Rep.	26,799	28,250	21,471	20,579	14,537	10,719	8,977	8,543	10,394	10,609	160,878
Ecuador	3,988	-	3,158	3,836	3,935	3,171	4,351	3,360	4,029	4,478	34,306
El Salvador	2,711	1,983	1,001	1,636	1,782	1,088	1,286	2,548	3,732	5,123	22,890
Germany	521	481	501	-	464	396	443	597	732	578	4,713
Guatemala	1,089	708	543	698	717	603	592	669	795	942	7,356
Guyana	6,082	5,320	5,132	6,798	5,203	2,781	2,238	3,917	-	7,011	44,482
Haiti	3,643	4,527	3,508	4,461	3,884	3,408	4,778	5,507	4,531	3,861	42,108
Honduras	1,691	-	-	-	1,444	1,130	842	904	-	876	6,887
India	5,338	5,338	4,859	5,611	4,833	4,017	3,542	3,581	4,942	4,728	46,789
Iran	799	563	437	619	427	357	319	443	469	414	4,847
Ireland	4,411	5,142	-	-	200	179	167	226	-	184	10,509
Jamaica	7,992	6,366	6,884	7,990	7,461	5,874	6,687	5,825	5,727	5,548	66,354
Japan	-	702	-	-	524	465	498	775	947	881	4,792
Korea	2,022	1,904	1,757	2,429	1,832	1,449	1,523	1,773	1,893	1,652	18,234
Mexico	1,911	1,310	848	1,553	1,774	1,616	1,841	1,883	2,065	2,250	17,051
Nicaragua	-	-	-	-	277	146	269	741	504	338	2,275
Nigeria	-	-	1,230	1,942	1,222	1,301	1,083	1,108	-	1,143	9,029
Pakistan	2,056	2,200	2,694	3,352	3,451	3,900	3,878	3,820	3,294	2,538	31,183
Peru	2,062	1,770	1,275	2,151	2,089	1,666	1,433	1,226	1,349	1,453	16,474
Philippines	4,905	3,878	3,216	3,719	2,614	1,490	1,480	1,927	2,218	2,319	27,766
Poland	6,517	6,733	3,065	3,694	2,829	1,684	1,787	2,108	2,369	2,757	33,543
Sov. Un. *	14,345	19,618	19,227	15,039	8,870	7,514	10,974	11,128	6,615	10,385	123,715
Trin.& Tob.	-	3,496	-	-	3,518	2,287	2,171	3,100	-	2,671	17,243
U. Kingdom	2,059	1,894	1,164	1,304	942	762	816	1,066	1,417	1,151	12,575
Vietnam	1,759	995	963	971	702	646	611	665	792	76010	8,864
Yugo. *	-	-	1,553	2,043	1,397	1,782	1,434	2,160	1,425	3,853	15,647
Other	26,411	22,850	26,890	41,825	26,068	17,206	16,130	18,339	40,808	18,228	254,755
Total	151,209	144,354	128,406	154,095	123,716	96,559	96,979	106,061	114,116	114,827	1,230,322

A dash (-) indicates that the data for that year were not published for that country in the INS Statistical Yearbook.
* China data include Hong Kong and Taiwan. Former USSR data continued since break-up (except FY'96-'97 and ’01 include only Russia and Ukraine). Former Yugoslavia data continued since break-up.

The 31 nationalities above represent nearly four-fifths (79.3%) of all immigrant settlement and adjustment in New York during this ten-year period. Nearly one-third (32.8%) of total admissions were accounted for by immigrants from the Dominican Republic, the former Soviet Union and China. The Dominican Republic alone accounted for more than one-eighth (13.1%) of total admissions.  

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New York: Social Policy Issues

WELFARE AND HEALTH CARE

The New York Immigration Coalition has issued a report, "Welfare Reform and Health Care: The Wrong Prescription for Immigrants," that asserts that there are 52,000 new immigrants in New York city who are poor enough that they would be eligible for Medicaid if it were not denied to them by the law. The study concludes that it would cost $16 million to provide Medicaid to the new immigrants, but that not doing so costs $29 million because of the immigrants' resort to emergency rooms for their treatment. (Source: Newsday, Dec. 1, 2000)

In March, 1997, Mayor Giuliani filed suit against the welfare reform law that will deny benefits to immigrants who have been eligible for welfare but have neither become U.S. citizens nor have paid into the social security system for ten years. New York City has about 75,000 elderly and disabled legal immigrants who stand to lose Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits and 135,000 additional legal immigrants who will lose food stamps. The state and city governments will then have to decide whether to assume the $450 million cost of those programs.
(Source: New York Times, March 26, 1997)

The lawsuit to block the federal welfare reform law (above) was dismissed in federal court. Since September 1997, more that 50,000 able-bodied legal immigrants between ages 18-59 have been cut from the food stamp rolls. However, both the state and city have reprogrammed additional funds into "food pantries" for the needy.
(Source: New York Times, Dec. 8, 1997)

In fiscal year 1993, the state spent $69 million on emergency medical care for amnestied, illegal and legal immigrants who were ineligible for public assistance. New York City alone spent $63 million on medical services for aliens. The state spent $2 billion in social services, including welfare, for immigrants in fiscal 1993. (Source: Our Teeming Shore, Report by the New York Senate Committee on Cities, Jan. 24, 1994)

New York state has 150,000 illegal aliens who were granted amnesty but denied eligibility for federal benefits under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which means the state will have to pick up the full amount of any public assistance costs incurred by those immigrants. A month-long survey done in June 1991 by New York's Department of Social Services found that half of New York City applicants for public assistance were foreign born, and the percentage for the rest of the state was 38%.

EDUCATION

New York state estimates annual costs for elementary and secondary education for immigrant children at $3.2 billion. This includes one billion dollars a year for New York City to build new schools over the next 10 years. Those schools will be needed to accommodate the population growth caused by large-scale immigration. Students eligible for assistance under the Emergency Immigration Education Act cost the state more than one billion dollars in fiscal 1993 alone.

The trustees of City University of New York (CUNY) decided in spring, 1997 to require that all community college graduates pass the Writing Assessment Test (WAT). That test had been used previously only for determining which students had to take ESL or remedial English classes, and had to be passed to gain admittance to regular English classes. However, the growing number of non-English speaking students who were graduating without ever leaving ESL classes prompted the change of policy. At Hostos Community College, 125 out of 400 potential graduates had not passed the WAT. English now is a second or third language for 56% of CUNY community- college students.
(Christian Science Monitor, June 23, 1997)

LIMITED ENGLISH PROFICIENCY STUDENTS

Data are not available nationally on immigrant students (either legally or illegally resident in the United States) who are enrolled in primary and secondary schools (K-12). However, many of these students are enrolled in Limited English Proficiency/English Language Learning (LEP/ELL) instruction programs. Many may be U.S.-born, but the majority of these students may be assumed to be either immigrants or the children of immigrants, with the exception being areas with native Americans who speak a native language other than English.

In New York, overall enrollment in 2002 (72,920,000) was 6 percent below enrollment in 1993. By contrast, LEP enrollment (266,774 - 9.1% of all enrollment) was 37.1 percent higher than a decade earlier.

Data on enrollment in LEP/ELL programs are collected by the federal government from school systems that receive Title VII funds for these special instruction programs. The data on LEP/ELL enrollment are understated because data from private schools that do not apply for Title VII assistance are sketchy.

CRIME

It will cost New York $210 million to incarcerate all foreign born inmates for a year, including $63 million to incarcerate illegal aliens. According to Anthony Annucci, deputy commissioner of the New York State Department of Correctional Services, the cost of incarcerating foreign born inmates will continue to rise at an "extremely alarming rate." The number of foreign born inmates in the state correctional system rose 194% between April 1, 1985, and December 31, 1992.

Currently, the only reimbursement for costs of criminal aliens the state receives from the federal government is a small amount for incarcerated Cuban felons who entered in the Mariel boatlift. Mariel Cubans make up 6% of the prison system's foreign-born population.
(Source: "Our Teeming Shore ... A Legislative Report on the Impact of U.S. Immigration Policy on New York State," New York State Senate's Committee on Cities, January 1994).

"The facts are these: New York City's biggest and fastest growing category of immigrants, those from the Dominican Republic, includes a disproportionately high number of violent criminals, including murderers and drug dealers. Many of them have returned to their homeland to take advantage of the country's laws that forbid the extradition of its nationals, including hastily returned migrants to the U.S." Efforts by Mayor Giuliani and Police Commissioner Safir in November 1996 to negotiate an agreement to bring 150 Dominicans to justice after fleeing home resulted in a rejection by Dominican authorities -- echoed by New York politicians, including Mayoral hopeful Ruth Messinger -- as an infringement on the sovereignty of the Dominican Republic.
(Source: Middle American News, August, 1997)

HOUSING

Why would slum landlords support wide-open immigration? The answer is suggested by the results of a study of immigrant housing conditions in New York City by the Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy of NYU's law school. The study, based on the 1996 NYC Housing and Vacancy Survey, found that the occupants of living quarters that "do not provide safe and adequate shelter or that have problems that normal maintenance cannot correct" were led by immigrants from the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico [the study treated persons born in Puerto Rico as if they were immigrants], Latin America, other Caribbean countries and Africa. The shares for all of those groups in sub-standard housing was higher than for native-born blacks and mainland-born Puerto Ricans. The rate for Dominican immigrants, at the top of the list, was over one-third of all households. When the focus shifted to overcrowding -- more than one person per room -- the list was headed by immigrants from the Indian subcontinent. On average 28 percent of immigrants from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh lived in overcrowded housing -- 12 times the rate for native-born whites.
(Source: New York Times, May 4, 1998)

NEW YORK LEADERSHIP'S RESPONSE TO THE IMMIGRATION CRISIS

The New York State Senate Committee on Cities has called for a moratorium on immigration until the federal government can assess the impact of immigration on the country.
(Source: Office of New York state Sen. Frank Padavan)

New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and former New York Governor Mario Cuomo have both praised illegal immigration. Giuliani said in 1994: "Some of the hardest working and most productive people in this city are undocumented aliens. If you come here and you work hard and you happen to be in an undocumented status, you're one of the people who we want in this city. You're somebody that we want to protect".
(Source: New York Times, June 10, 1994)

In a June 17, 1994, editorial published in the New York Post, former New York City Mayor Ed Koch argued that providing education and emergency medical care to illegal aliens is only humane, but putting out "the welcome mat" for illegal aliens is absurd. "The mayor should not be advancing a policy that encourages immigrants to think of New York City as their safe haven. There are sections of the country that, bizarrely, have declared themselves sanctuary zones -- open to all -- exempting themselves from the federal immigration laws. Of course, this is a ridiculous and illegal posture. To date, New York City and state have not been a part of that anarchist philosophy," he said.

New York City Mayor Giuliani, speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on May 27, 1997 [covered by C-SPAN] said that the city needs better cooperation with the INS to deport criminal aliens. At the same time he defended the order to municipal employees not to ask about legal residence status.

POLL DATA

A September 1996 Newsday poll conducted in Queens (where the foreign-born share of the population is 36.2%) asked 603 respondents, including immigrants, "Do you favor or oppose reducing the number of legal immigrants allowed to enter the U.S. each year?" The responses favored a reduction by more than two to one (64% - 29%). A majority of each ethnic group was in favor. For whites the results were 66% for and 27% opposed. For blacks, the results were 68% for and 27% opposed. For Hispanics, the results were 59% for and 36% opposed.

RACIAL AND ETHNIC RELATIONS

"Someone has got to tell Giuliani that he is creating a climate in this city that is pitting black and brown residents against the city government," said Rev. Calvin Butts III, a Harlem Baptist minister. He called Giuliani a "racist," but then backed off when others said the New York City situation is not reducible to simple epithets. "So many new groups have come in that it is impossible to maintain the old racial polarity," said Mitchell Moss, director of the Taub Urban Research Center at NYU. Currently 62 percent of the city is black, Hispanic or Asian. About one-third of the black households in New York City are headed by foreign-born persons whose concerns are different from native-born blacks. Hispanics edged out blacks as the city's largest minority in 1996, and the projection is that by 2000, 38 percent of the city's population will be foreign born (compared to the high-point if 40 percent in 1910). [Comment: The trend in immigrant arrivals and native-born departures indicate that the historic high will not only be reached soon, and that the share of foreign-born share will continue to climb.]
(Source: Washington Post, June 9, 1998)

IMMIGRANTS AS AN ECONOMIC DRAG

The New York City metropolitan area was rated by ReliaStar Financial Corp. in 1998 as No. 92 (out of 100) in a ranking of cities in terms of conditions that allow residents "to Earn and Save Money." FAIR's analysis of the ReliaStar ratings shows that the highest ranked cities have slower growing immigrant populations than the lowest ranked cities, and conversely, cities like New York and Los Angeles, with huge immigrant populations are at the bottom. The New York City metropolitan area had an 18.7 percent foreign-born share in 1990 (compared to the national average of 7.9%) and 50 percent of its 2,350,000 population increase (1990-97) was due to net international immigration (compared to the national average of 30%).

Immigrants as the New York City motor of growth was the central theme of a two part series in the Washington Post May 25 and 26, 1997. The articles also documented the dropping crime rate and the role of the NY Stock Exchange as a key explanation of a budget surplus. Negative effects of immigration are the under-funded, over-crowded schools and dangerously overcrowded living accommodations.

OTHER

Unemployment in New York City is growing while at the same time it is declining nationwide. This trend is in part due to the large numbers of immigrants arriving in the city. When asked about rising unemployment and homeless on May 27, 1997 at the National Press Club, Mayor Giuliani responded that the rising unemployment is due to increased numbers looking for work who previously were on welfare, and the increased number of homeless being provided shelter is the result of opening new shelter facilities. (Comment: Persons looking for work who previously received welfare is not unique to New York City.)
New York Times, May 24, 1997

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New York: Illegal Aliens

FAIR ESTIMATE 

FAIR estimates the state’s illegal alien population as of 2008 is as many as 1,000,000 persons. This is part of an overall estimate of the U.S. illegal alien population of about 13 million persons.

INS ESTIMATE

According to the INS estimate of February 2003, New York had an illegal alien population in January 2000 of 489,000 residents. That was fewer than the INS estimate in 1997 that as of October 1996 the illegal alien population was 540,000 residents. Earlier, the INS had estimated that there were in October 1992 about 450,000 illegal alien residents.

New York had, according to the current INS estimate, the third largest illegal alien population after California and Texas. In November 2004, DHS updated the estimate of the state's illegal alien population to 560,000. Absent from these INS estimates were the illegal aliens who had applied for and received legal status as a result of the amnesty enacted in 1986. In the amnesty, more than 170,000 applicants listed New York as their residence. The most recent estimate by DHS put the illegal poulation in the state at 540,000 in 2006.

Based upon the new 2000 Census data, the Migration Policy Institute issued a May 2002 study that estimated New York's illegal alien population at 700,000.

New York has received partial compensation under the federal State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) that was established in 1994 to compensate the states and local jurisdictions for incarceration of "undocumented," aliens who are serving time for a felony conviction or at least two misdemeanors.

New York City has lost a lawsuit intended to preserve its regulations that restrict city employees from informing the INS about illegal aliens. A three-judge U.S. Circuit Appeals Court ruled that the city's restrictions -- adopted by Mayor Koch in 1989 and defended by Mayor Giuliani -- were nothing more than an unlawful effort to flaunt federal enforcement efforts against illegal aliens. (Source: AP report inNewsday, June 1, 1999)

Jackson Heights in New York City's Queens borough has over 8,000 immigrants according to the NYC Dept. of City Planning, many of whom are illegal aliens. They are often accommodated in illegally converted housing units. "...diversity does not always translate into harmony. Some of the established residents see their hard work from creating a historic district to launching beautification projects being jeopardized by the influx of people living in carved and quartered spaces. The complaints often follow the same logic: a mostly suburban area has become crowded with people who send their children to the schools, ...and because many of them are illegal residents, do not pay taxes". (Source: New York Times, July 29, 1997)

OTHER ESTIMATES

The Pew Hispanic Center estimated in March 2005 that the illegal alien population in New York was 550,000- 650,000 in 2004.

COSTS OF ILLEGAL ALIENS

The amount of SCAAP awards has been declining in both total distributions and even more as a share of the state’s expenses. In FY’99 the state received 38.6% of its costs for 6,249 prisoner years of detention. By FY’02, the state’s reported illegal alien detention increased by 72 percent to 10,747 prisoner years while compensation increased by four percent but since has decreased sharply.

Medical Costs
Under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, hospitals with emergency rooms are required to treat and stabilize patients with emergency medical needs regardless whether or not they are in the country legally or whether they are able to pay for the treatment. Congress in 2003 enacted an appropriation of $250 million per year (for 4 years) to help offset some of the costs due to use of this service by illegal aliens. This amount has been allocated among the states based upon estimates of the illegal alien population and data on the apprehension of illegal aliens in each state. This amount compensates only a fraction of the medical outlays. For New York, the proposed payment in fiscal year 2004 is $12,477,512. 

Educational Costs
In our study Breaking the Piggy Bank: How Illegal Immigration is Sending Schools into the Red, we estimated based on 2004 data that educational expenditures for illegal immigration were costing the New York taxpayer $3.135  billion dollars annually. This cost was partially for educating students who were themselves illegally in the country ($1.306 billion) and in part for the education of their siblings born in the United States to illegal residents ($1.828 billion).

Projected Fiscal Costs
In 2006 we estimated that New York taxpayers are currently burdened with annual costs of about $3.495 billion because of illegal aliens residing in the state. That estimate was based on only expenditures for education, emergency medical care and incarceration. We projected that those costs will rise unless we gain control over our borders and our worksites. If a new amnesty and increases in immigrants and guest workers were enacted, as proposed by business and ethnic advocacy groups, we project that the cost to the state’s taxpayers for those same programs would rise to $5.669 billion per year in 2010 and to $9.410 billion per year in 2020.

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New York : Poll Data

A Zogby Poll conducted from October 11th-October 15th of 718 New York State voters found:

• 65% oppose Governor Spitzer’s plan of making drivers’ licenses available to illegal immigrants
• 46% said that New York City clerks, who disagree with the rule, should refuse issuing driver’s licenses.
• 63% said they believe the proposal would hurt by encouraging undocumented immigrants to register to vote illegally and to improperly obtain other state benefits using their drivers’ licenses as identification.
• 64% disagreed with Spitzer’s rationale that once undocumented immigrants obtained licenses, they would also buy car insurance.
• 66% rate the issue of undocumented aliens’ driver’s license as important, compared with other issues facing New York. (4% “the most important issue” 28% “more important than most issues” and 34% “of medium importance”).

Empire State Poll, July 2006

• 72% of New Yorkers think that entering the United States without valid immigration document should be made a criminal offense.
• 66% of New Yorkers support border controls.
• 45% of New Yorkers would like the number of immigrant to decrease.

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New York: Immigration Impact

State Population (2006 CB estimate)	19,315,721
State Population in 2000	19,000,135
Average Annual Change 2000-2006	0.3%
Foreign Born Population 2006 1	4,522,080
Foreign Born Share 2006	23.4%
Foreign Born Population 2000	3,868,133
Foreign Born Share 2000	20.4%
Average Annual Change 2000-2006	2.7%
Population Projection 2010	19.4 million
Population Projection 2025	19.5 million
Population Projection 2050 (FAIR)	27.0 million

All numbers are from the U.S. Census Bureau unless otherwise noted. Additional Census Bureau, INS, and other immigration-related data are available for New York.

 

POPULATION CHANGE

’s population increased by 5.6 percent between 1990 and 2000, and by 1.6 percent between 2000 and 2006, bringing New York’s total population to approximately 19.3 million. 

FAIR estimates the illegal alien population in 2005 at 646,000, which ranks 3rd in the U.S. for the FAIR estimate. This number is 32% above the U.S. government estimate of 489,000 in 2000, and 81% above the 1990 estimate of 357,000.

According to an estimate of the Pew Hispanic Center, in 2005 there were an estimated 550,000 to 650,000 illegal aliens living in New York This estimate ranks 4^th among illegal alien populations in the United States for the PEW estimate.²

FAIR estimates in 2004 that the taxpayers of New Yorkspent $3135.2 million per year on illegal aliens and their children in public schools.³

FAIR’s projected annual fiscal costs to New York taxpayers for emergency medical care, education and incarceration resulting if an amnesty is adopted for illegal residents.
Current	2010	2020
$3,495,000,000	$5,669,000,000	$9,410,000,000

POPULATION PROFILE

FOREIGN-BORN POPULATION

ENVIRONMENTAL AND QUALITY OF LIFE PROFILE

Water: Between 2000 and 2006, ’s foreign-born population increased by 8 percent.⁴That compares with a 0.6 percent increase in the native-born population and that includes the children born to immigrants. When the U.S-born children of immigrants are included, immigration accounts for all of the state’s overall growth during that time.⁵By 2050 the state’s population is expected to rise from 19.3 million in 2006 to 26.2 million.⁶has a daily, per-capita water demand of 135.4 gallons.⁷This means that by 2050 public water usage will have increased by 934.3 million gallons each day.

Traffic: As population growth put more traffic on the roads, the average commute for residents increased to an average of 31.2 minutes in 2005. ⁸34% of New York's major urban roads are congested, and 35% of New York's major roads are in poor or mediocre condition. Vehicle travel on New York's highways increased 26% from 1990 to 2003. Driving on roads in need of repair costs motorists $3.2 billion a year in extra vehicle repairs and operating costs --- $285 per motorist. Congestion in the Albany area costs commuters $208 per person per year, $182 per person in Buffalo per person per year, $893 per person in New York City per person per year, and $103 person per year in Rochester in excess fuel and lost time. ⁹

In the New York-Newark area travelers experience an annual delay of 49 hours, and an annual delay of 7 hours in Rochester. 26 percent of commuters have a commute that is 45 minutes or longer, a figure that ranks 1^st in the U.S. ¹⁰

Disappearing open space: Long Island used to have 151,000 acres of farmland; now only 34,000 acres remain. By 2010 as much as three-fourths of that will be gone.¹¹

A study of urban sprawl between 1970 and 1990 that calculated the impact of population increase and per capita land use found that 58.2 square miles of additional land were consumed by urban sprawl in the Albany-Schenectady-Troy metropolitan area, and 13.9 percent of that sprawl was attributable to population increase. In the Syracuse metro area sprawl consumed an additional 37.4 square miles and population increase accounted for 10.1 percent of the increase.¹²

Crowded housing: Studies show that a rise in crowded housing often correlates with an increase in the number of foreign-born.¹³,¹⁴Throughout the state over 303,000 households were defined as crowded or severely crowded housing in 2005. ¹⁵

Solid Waste: generates 1.29 tons of solid waste per capita. ¹⁶

Air Quality: 19 of New York’s 62 counties received a grade of “F” from the American Lung Association in their “State of the Air 2005” report. 5 other counties received a grade of “C”. ¹⁷

Health Care: The New York Court of Appeals ruled in 2001 that the state must finance health coverage for legal immigrants. Officials say this will cost taxpayers at least $200 million in extra Medicaid costs.¹⁸

IMMIGRANT SETTLEMENT

Immigrant Settlement Immigrant admissions between 1991 and 2000 totaled 1.3 million, an annual average of nearly 134,000. (This does not reflect the full impact of immigration on New York, as it only includes immigrants who went straight to upon first entering the country).

IMPACT OF IMMIGRATION ON NEW YORK SCHOOLS

Between 1990 and 2000, New York’s public school enrollment increased 14 percent.

31 percent of school-aged children in New York have immigrant parents.¹⁹Seven percent of New York City students immigrated to the U.S. in the past three years. In Queens, schools are scrambling for space for 30,000 additional students. “That’s almost exclusively driven by immigration,” according to Harold Levy, New York City’s school chancellor.²⁰

As fast as new schools are built, enrollment increases fill them up. New York City estimated it would be 22,000 students over capacity during the 2002 school year.²¹ Over 1,600 classes in 400 public schools there violate city guidelines for overcrowding.²² Many of the areas most affected by overcrowding are those that have experienced a large influx of immigrants in recent years.²³

“With too many students and too few classrooms, the principal and teachers at PS 112 in Long Island City make do,” reports Newsday. “The gym teacher shares his gymnasium with therapists for special-education students, so there isn’t enough space for basketball games. Upstairs, fifth-graders use a former boys’ shower as a storage room and hang their coats on the shower knobs. It would be shocking, if only it weren’t so commonplace in Queens, which has the most crowded schools in New York City, if not the nation. Queens needs another 30,000 new seats just to handle current students —before expected hikes in enrollment”.²⁴

More than 11,100 city classrooms are overstuffed -- with 10,000 of them in high schools -- a new teachers union survey shows. Queens’ high schools, where overcrowding has been a chronic problem, were the most packed on average. The union found 4,490 of Queens’ high school classes had more than 34 students -- the cap outlined in the union's contract with the city. ²⁵

In the Orchard Park School District, some classes are held in school ticket booth and custodial closets.²⁶

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

The bulk of the state’s illegal aliens live in New York City, which has one of the country’s highest concentrations of illegal residents. Social service agencies there say they are seeing an increase of illegal aliens seeking help because they are homeless. ²⁷

In Farmingville, citizens have been protesting the growing numbers of illegal alien day laborers soliciting work on the hamlet’s streets. Besides illegally working, the day laborers have been cited as the source of increased drug dealing, prostitution, and a decline in property values. ²⁸

Endotes:

1. FAIR estimate based on the 2006 Current Population Survey.
2. "Estimates of the Unauthorized Migrant Population for States based on the March 2005 CPS", Pew Hispanic Center.
3. Martin, Jack. “Breaking the Piggy Bank: How Illegal Immigration is Sending Schools into the Red,” A Report by the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
4.  “U.S. Census Bureau 2006.
5. Jack Martin. “Issue Brief: Estimation of Foreign Born Birthrate.” FAIR. 2008.
6. Jack Martin and Stanley Fogel. “Projecting the U.S. Population to 2050.” FAIR. March 2006.
7. U.S. Geological Survey 2000.
8. Selected Economic Characteristics: 2005 Data Set- 2005 American Community Survey, American Fact Finder, U.S. Census Bureau.
9. Report Card for America's Infrastructure 2005," American Society of Civil Engineers
10. "The 2005 Urban Mobility Report", Texas Transportation Institute.
11. “U.S. Population 2007 Data Sheet,” Population Reference Bureau.
12. Richard Amper, “Development, Planning Threaten Open Space” Newsday, August 23, 2002.
13. Haya El Nasser, “U.S. Neighborhoods Grow More Crowded” USA Today, July 7, 2002.
14. Randy Capps, “Hardship among Children of Immigrants: Finding from the 1999 National Survey of America’s Families,” Urban Institute, 2001.
15. Selected Housing Characteristics: 2005 Data Set - 2005 American Community Survey, American Fact Finder, U.S. Census Bureau.
16. Report Card for America's Infrastructure 2005," American Society of Civil Engineers.
17. “State of the Air 2005: New York”, American Lung Association.
18. Michael Gormley, “State May Face Greater Cost Through Immigrant Health Care Ruling” Associated Press, June 12, 2001.
19. “Check Points,” Urban Institute,, September 2,2000.
20. Charisse Jones, “New-Timers’ Lives Reviving Old Cities” USA Today, April 20, 2001.
21. Carl Campanile, “Classroom Crush is Easing a Little” New York Post, August 15, 2002.
22. Carl Campanile and Clemente Lisi, “City Students are Forced to Cram” New York Post, February 20, 2001.
23. Carl Campanile and Clemente Lisi, “City Students are Forced to Cram” New York Post, February 20, 2001.
24. Jessica Kowal, “Overcrowding Tests Schools” Newsday, February 17,2001.
25. Report Card for America's Infrastructure 2005," American Society of Civil Engineers.
26. Karen Robinson, “Growth Puts School District, Planners in a Bind,” Buffalo News, October 12, 2001.
27. Judith Messina, “Life in the Margins” Crain’s New York Business, July 16, 2001.
28. Newsday, Nassau and Suffolk Section, July 25, 1999.

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