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Texas

Summary Demographic State Data (and Source)
Population (2008 CB est.):	24,326,974
Population (2000 Census):	20,851,820
Foreign-Born Population (2008 FAIR est.):	3,967,385
Foreign-Born Population (2000 Census):	2,899,642
Share Foreign-Born (2008 FAIR):	16.3%
Share Foreign-Born (2000):	13.9%
Immigrant Stock (2000 CB est.):	4,801,000
Share Immigrant Stock (2000 est.):	23.0%
Naturalized U.S. Citizens (2006 Census):	1,114,585
Share Naturalized (2006):	30.6%
Legal Immigrant Admission (DHS 1997-2006):	720,444
Refugee Admission (DHS 1997-2006):	36,430
Illegal Alien Population (2008 FAIR est.):	1,740,000
Cost of Illegal Aliens - (2005 FAIR)	$4,700,000,000
Projected 2050 Population - (2006 FAIR):	49,036,997

Immigration-driven population growth is taking its toll on Texas, the second fastest growing state in the U.S. In the last ten years, nearly 3.9 million new residents settled in Texas. Thirty-six percent of these new residents were immigrants. This large-scale population growth is bringing traffic, pollution, overcrowded schools, and lack of affordable housing to the state, decreasing quality of life and straining natural resources.

Census Bureau Data

STATE POPULATION

Using the Current Population Survey, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that in July 2008 Texas’s population had increased to 24,326,974 residents, i.e., an annual average increase of about 418,695 residents since 2000. That is a rate of increase of about 2.0 percent 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 851,910 residents from net international migration (more foreign-born arriving than leaving). That was an annual average increase of about 102,640 residents, i.e., nearly one-fourth (24.5%) of the total increase (not including the children born to the immigrants after their arrival in the United States).

The 2000 Census found 20,851,820 persons resident in Texas. This was an increase of 3,865,310 persons above the 1990 Census (22.8%). The amount of increase was the second highest in the country. The rate of increase, however, ranked Texas eighth highest in the country.

The 2000 population was about 750,000 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 Texas's overall population increased by 19.4 percent (from 14,225,513 to 16,986,510 residents).

Texas had the 5th greatest rate of population increase in the country between 1960-2000.

FOREIGN-BORN POPULATION

Based on the American Community Survey (ACS), the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that the foreign-born population of Texas was 3,700,449 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 Texas was about 3,967,385 residents in July 2008. This meant a foreign-born population share of 16.3 percent. The amount of change since the 2000 Census indicates an average annual rate of increase in the foreign-born population of about 128,645 people, which is more than three-tenths (30.7%) of the state’s annual average population increase. Since 2000, the foreign-born population has increased by 36.8 percent compared to a 13.4 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 32.6 percent share of the state’s current births is large enough to account for about 124,410 births a year. Combining the increase in the foreign-born population and estimated immigrant births suggests that immigration may account for nearly 253,000 persons added to the state’s population annually, i.e., more than three-fifths (60.4%) of the state’s overall population increase.

Texas had the 9th greatest rate of foreign-born increase in the country between 1965-2005.

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 35.6 percent of the state's overall population increase over that decade. The share of the population increase due to immigration would be still higher if the children of the immigrants born here after their arrival were included with their immigrant parents in the calculation. The amount of the overall impact of immigration (immigrants plus their children) on population change is more likely to account for around 56 percent of the state's population increase, based on the increase in the share of those who speak a language other than English at home in Texas.[See: Dan Stein Commentary Feeling squeezed? Blame immigration in the August 12, 2002 Dallas Morning News.]

The 2000 Census found that 46.1 percent of Texas's foreign-born population had arrived in the state since 1990. This demonstrates the effects of the current mass immigration, and it is a higher 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 Texas increased by more than one-fifth, from 25.4 percent to 31.2 percent. Less than half (44.4%) 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 Texas in the 2000 Census)
Spanish	5,195,180
Vietnamese	122,515
German	82,090
Chinese	72,590
French	60,550
Tagalog	39,990
Korean	38,450
Urdu	32,980
Arabic	32,910
Hindi	20,920
(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 3,740,667 residents, an increase of 29.0 percent since 2000. In comparison, the foreign-born population changed from 1,524,436 to 2,899,642 residents between 1990 and 2000, an increase of 90.2 percent.

The ten countries below constituted approximately four fifths (81.5%) of the foreign-born population in Texas in 2006. Of the total foreign-born population, Mexico alone accounted for approximately three fifths (62.5%). 

Foreign-Born Change: Top Ten Countries 1990-2006
Rank	Country	1990		Country	2000		Country	2006
1	Mexico	907,432		Mexico	1,879,369		Mexico	2,339,715
2	Vietnam	53,628		Vietnam	107,027		El Slavador	157,474
3	El Salvador	49,419		El Salvador	101,259		Vietnam	129,779
4	Germany	34,058		India	78,388		India	122,644
5	India	32,162		China	69,654		Philippines	71,699
6	United Kingdom	28,111		Philippines	45,907		China	62,049
7	Philippines	25,620		Canada	36,802		Korea	49,228
8	Korea	22,919		United Kingdom	36,176		Canada	43,523
9	Canada	22,038		Korea	35,986		Colombia	37,575
10	Taiwan	17,087		Honduras	33,655		Germany	34,690
	All Others	331,962		All Others	475,419		All Others	692,291
	Total	1,524,436		Total	2,899,642		Total	3,740,667

THE IMMIGRANT STOCK

The Census Bureau estimated that there were about 4,801,000 people in Texas 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 20,851,820, the immigrant stock share of the state's population was 23 percent -- the 11^th highest share in the country.

As the graph below shows, the amount and share of Texas’ 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 4,776,500 people to the population. Over this period, the increase in the foreign stock has accounted for 42.3 percent of the state’s population increase.

NATURALIZATION

Data from the American Community Survey indicate that 1,144,585 residents, or 30.6 percent, of the foreign-born population in Texas were citizens, compared to 914,326 residents, or 31.5 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 2050

Texas -- Projected Population in 2050: Projection Scenarios

Amnesty+		High-trend		Low-trend		Zero-net
49,036,997		43,229,146		25,377,912		32,494,288

Texas's projected population in 2050 could range anywhere from about 32 million residents to over 49 million. The 17 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 23 million residents to around 41 to 43 million persons in 2050 - an increase of 80 to 87 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 still grow, but more modestly by about 42 percent. However, if the currently proposed immigration expansion and illegal alien accommodation proposals were adopted - the amnesty/guest worker/immigration increase scenario - the increase in the projected population over the next 45 years would be more than double what it is today (111% larger).

Texas -- Projected Population in 2050: Cohorts

1970 Pop.		Post-'70 Stock		Legal Post-'04		Illegal Post-'04		Amnesty+
22,547,707		9,946,581		5,218,516		5,516,342		5,807,851

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 still increasing, by about 4.6 million persons (26%) over the next 45 years. This trend reflects some net in-migration from other states as well as larger than average family size among the state's pre-1970 immigrant population.

Post-1970 immigrants are projected to be nearly doubling (99%) by 2050. The high rate of 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 about 5 million of the state's residents. By 2050, this cohort is projected to rise to more than 9.9 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. Texas has had an average of more than 63,000 legal immigrant admissions per year between 1994 and 2003. More than half of those admissions have been Mexicans. Mexicans combined with immigrants from other Spanish-speaking countries constitute nearly two-thirds of the new arrivals. Immigration from Asian countries has amounted to nearly one-fourth (24%) of the immigrant admissions, leaving immigration from countries with predominantly white populations at about 7 percent, and less than 3 percent from countries with black populations in Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America. We project that new immigrants and their children from all sources will add more than 5.2 million residents to the state's population over the next 45 years if current trends remain unchanged.

Illegal immigration, like legal immigration to Texas, is dominated by Mexicans. We estimate that Texas's illegal alien population now numbers about 1.7 million persons. The continued addition of illegal immigrants over the next 45 years, assuming it continues at current rates, is projected to add more than 5.5 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 a further nearly 5.8 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.

Texas -- Projected Population in 2050: Demographic Change

White, not Hispanic		Mexican		Other Hispanic		Black		Asian		Other
13,111,053		24,843,453		4,033,417		4,116,714		2,497,275		435,084

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 over the period of this projection increase by nearly 1.6 million persons, or nearly 14 percent. This trend is influenced in part by net migration from other states.

Because the Mexican or Mexican ancestry population constitutes a large share of the post-70 and continuing immigrant influx as well as potential amnesty beneficiaries, and this population on average has larger than replacement family size, the Hispanic population is projected to rise much more rapidly: Mexicans by 295 percent and other Hispanics by 124 percent. Hispanics are projected to add nearly 21 million residents and increase in share to more than a majority (59%) of the population if current trends remain unchanged. Just about half of the state's population is projected to be comprised of Mexicans and their descendents.

The Asian population is also projected rise sharply - adding more than 1.7 million residents - an increase of 223 percent. Blacks are also projected to increase by about 1.5 million residents, but a more modest rate of 60 percent.

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Extended Data

GENERAL INFORMATION

Texas had the fourth largest foreign-born population in the 1990 Census, although it has almost overtaken Florida for third spot. The state has the second largest number of illegal aliens (behind only California, as estimated by the INS). More than one in every nine Texas residents is an immigrant. Only 24.3 percent of the state's immigrant population had becoume U.S. citizens by 1997. This is conciderably lower than the national average of 35 percent, and is due in part to the continuing wave of new resident aliens, many of whom are illegally in the country.

Mexico accounts for over half of all of the state's immigrant population. The share of the foreign-born population living below the poverty level was in 1996 about twice the average for the native-born population (31% and 16%, respectively).

The state's seven major metro areas (above) accounted for over three-fifths (61%) of all Texans in 1990 and for more than three-quarters (76%) of all foreign-born Texas residents. The new immigrants since 1990 settling in these seven metro areas also represent more than three-quarters (78%) of all the immigrants during the period listing Texas as their intended residence.

REFUGEE SETTLEMENT

Texas has received 36,430 refugees over the most recent ten fiscal years (FY'97-'06), with 3,118 arriving in FY’06.

Under the Office of Refugee Resettlement's (HHS/ORR) assistance funding for FY'02 $3,291,275 is available for refugee employment training and other services programs in Texas based on a three-year refugee settlement program covering 13,114 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 $19,138,060 and $22,135,550.

IMMIGRANT CHILDREN

In 2000 more than one-quarter of all of Texas's children are either foreign born or the child of an immigrant. Four percent are first-generation immigrants (foreign born) and 22 percent are second-generation (a child of an immigrant).
(Source: "Check Points," The Urban Inst. Sept. 2, 2000)

PUBLIC OPINION POLL DATA

A Feb.-Mar. 2002 Scripps Howard Texas poll asked whether the United States should toughen restrictions on visas for foreign students. According to a March 25 Dallas Morning News article, 80 percent of Texans agreed that restrictions should be tougher. For other visitors, 82 percent replied that there should be tougher restrictions on visas. Asked whether the U.S. allows too many legal immigrants into the country, 64 percent agreed.

A Sept. 2001 Scripps Howard Texas poll asked "Do you agree or disagree that the United States should grant amnesty to undocumented immigrants who hold jobs and work in this country?

By nearly 2 to 1 the respondents disagreed that amnesty should be granted. The percentages were: Disagree - 57 percent; Agree 29 percent.

The majority opposing amnesty was 66 percent to 22 percent among "Anglos," (meaning persons who identified themselves as white). Among Hispanics, 44 percent supported amnesty and 39 percent opposed it.

A vast majority of Texans also agreed that unlawful immigration from Mexico is a "serious problem," with 51 percent agreeing that it is a "very serious problem." Among Hispanics, two-thirds agreed that unauthorized immigration from Mexico is a problem.

FOREIGN STUDENTS

The 2006/07 annual report of the Institute of International Education (IIE) lists the number of foreign students attending post-secondary school in Texas as 49,081. Several schools in Texas are listed as having a major concentration of these students:

University of Texas had enrollment of 5,303 foreign students, 10.7 %of total enrollment.

Texas A&M University had enrollment of 3,857 foreign students, 9.5% of total enrollment

Houston C.C. System had enrollment of 3,378 foreign students, 6.2% of total enrollment (Additional Schools)

Below, a chart illustrates the sharp increase of foreign students attending school in Texas from 1960-2000.

For information on foreign student issues see: Foreign Students in the United States.

LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS

View a listing of local immigration reform organizations 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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Immigrant Admissions

Texas Immigrant Admissions by Fiscal Year
1997	57,897
1998	44,428
1999	49,393
2000	63,840
2001	86,315
2002	88,365
2003	53,412
2004	91,799
2005	95,958
2006	89,037
Total	720,444

Recent immigrant admissions have increased by about 438 percent since adoption of the current immigration system in 1965. During the 1965-'69 period, annual admissions averaged about 15,570 immigrants. During the 2002-'06 period, admissions averaged about 83,715 immigrants.

The charts below show recent immigrant admissions and the cumulative INS immigrant admissions data since 1965. The number of annual admissions has ranged from 13,742 in FY'66 to 212,600 in FY'91 (influenced by the amnesty adopted in 1986). The cumulative total of admissions to Texas between fiscal years 1965 and 2006 was about 2,297,510 immigrants.

This official flow of immigrants (including refugees) into the state as recorded by the INS is much lower than the increase in the immigrant population recorded by the Census Bureau over approximately the same ten-year period, i.e., 1,375,206. In part, this is because the Census data include illegal aliens and some long-term temporary residents. The difference between the two numbers points to the nature of the change in the illegal alien population. Another possible reason for the difference is because the INS data, unlike those of the Census Bureau, do not capture secondary migration of immigrants from one state to another or who die or return home.

The INS 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 Texas was 445,052 (308,517 pre-1982 residents and 136,535 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 Texas during this period.

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	-	-	-	467	505	512	225	335	-	326	2,370
Canada	1,143	1,112	987	1,463	742	495	564	1,270	1,640	1,409	10,825
China *	4,998	2,973	1,871	2,757	2,176	1,759	1,609	3,145	3,422	3,555	28,265
Colombia	458	378	373	505	385	298	384	497	814	930	5,022
Cuba	97	86	131	258	336	218	197	246	452	660	2,681
Dom. Rep.	103	114	101	108	83	97	80	94	138	127	1,045
Ecuador	92	-	106	148	385	106	115	107	161	190	1,410
El Salvador	3,642	2,499	1,656	2,730	2,296	1,694	1,785	2,677	3,644	3,289	25,912
Germany	515	489	438	-	282	313	269	386	557	525	3,774
Guatemala	565	430	352	525	369	363	356	429	622	744	5,669
Guyana	64	62	83	77	53	25	44	31	-	80	519
Haiti	31	26	82	123	22	14	25	21	44	48	436
Honduras	690	-	-	-	710	513	435	550	-	800	3,698
India	2,808	2,254	2,400	3,295	2,569	2,663	2,388	3,528	4,313	4,294	30,512
Iran	871	655	609	826	606	512	505	599	764	801	6,748
Ireland	204	311	-	-	31	18	28	52	-	55	699
Jamaica	134	185	146	164	117	108	104	140	210	209	1,517
Japan	-	184	-	-	157	114	94	203	286	294	1,332
Korea	759	620	602	843	501	392	430	583	838	928	6,496
Mexico	31,773	27,015	22,792	46,403	30,862	22,956	28,365	31,211	43,524	44,694	329,595
Nicaragua	-	-	-	-	208	143	250	644	630	653	2,528
Nigeria	-	-	906	1,252	951	1,008	864	1,045	-	1,198	7,224
Pakistan	836	719	799	1,291	1,207	1,054	1,245	1,576	1,890	1,575	12,192
Peru	251	264	206	341	233	235	238	270	386	457	2,881
Philippines	2,031	1,833	1,997	2,064	1,519	851	791	2,025	2,260	2,258	17,629
Poland	174	151	184	134	118	66	58	91	118	146	1,240
Sov. Un. *	808	873	824	843	694	799	737	1,362	1,268	1,658	9,866
Trin.& Tob.	-	145	-	-	121	84	109	129	-	199	787
U. Kingdom	970	937	717	958	612	534	424	845	1,193	1,206	8,396
Vietnam	5,173	4,292	4,251	5,793	3,123	1,576	1,524	2,275	3,772	3,704	35,483
Yugoslavia *	-	-	309	478	371	182	205	575	982	1,946	5,048
Other	8,190	7,551	7,041	9,539	5,553	4,726	4,946	6,899	12,387	9,407	76,239
Total	67,380	56,158	49,963	83,385	57,897	44,428	49,393	63,840	86,315	88,365	647,124

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 nine-tenths (88.2%) of all immigrant settlement and adjustment in Texas during this ten-year period. More than half (50.9%) of total admissions were accounted for by immigrants from Mexico. 

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Social Policy Issues

HEALTH CARE AND WELFARE

Medicaid payments for immigrants residing in Texas were $731 million in 1992, while the cost of county health and welfare services totaled $1.1 billion that year.
(Source: Huddle, March 2, 1994)

Each year about 6,000 aliens cross into Texas to give birth in El Paso hospitals, making their U.S.-born children citizens who are eligible for federal welfare benefits.
(Source: El Manana de Nuevo Laredo, May 9, 1994)

Leaders of the border county of Zavala [which had a 13% foreign-born population in 1990 and had 58.3% of its households reporting annual income below $15,000] believe that the new welfare law will bring hardship. Zavala County has the highest percentage of Texas residents receiving Aid to Families With Dependent Children, is third in Texas in the proportion of food stamp recipients and fourth in the percentage of Supplemental Security Income beneficiaries. The $281 average weekly wage in the county is half the state average, reflecting the fact that most residents are seasonal agricultural workers. More than 90% of the students in the Crystal City school district cannot afford 75 cents for lunch. Economists see little hope for job creation in the area. One town resident observed that even if 10 million jobs were created in the area, 12 million people would move up from central Mexico to take the jobs.
(Source: Rural Migration News, January, 1997)

EDUCATION

Primary and secondary education--the largest direct public outlays for the state's immigrant population in 1992--totaled $1.4 billion that year.
(Source: Huddle, March 2, 1994)

The Brownsville, Texas, school district, located on the U.S.-Mexico border, estimates it spends $20 million annually to educate children who do not live in the U.S. or do not live in the country legally.
(Source: Christian Science Monitor, April 26, 1994)

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 Texas, overall enrollment in 2002 (4,128,429) was 11.1 percent above enrollment in 1993. By contrast, LEP enrollment (601,791 - 14.6% of all enrollment) was 74.5 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.

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

The Water Constraint: A book by former Illinois Senator Paul Simon, now head of the Southern Illinois Univ. Public Policy Institute, focuses on the looming shortage of potable water as population expands. The book, "Tapped Out," describes water resource shortages around the world and in the United States. Texas is pinpointed as one of the trouble areas. Simon writes about Texas: "Aquifers (underground water sources) are being depleted. From 1930 to 1980, water use increased twice as fast as the population. As has become painfully apparent this year, Texas has a greater likelihood of suffering severe drought than most other states." (Source: Parade Magazine, August 23, 1998)

According to a study on the population trend on the U.S.-Mexico border by the Southwest Center for Environmental Research and Policy, the border population could double by 2020. "These population trends portend serious problems for border communities in terms of infrastructure deficits, availability of water and energy, and negative environmental impacts on water, air and natural resources," according to the report. The Center, based in San Diego, notes that already sewage from overloaded Mexican systems spills across the borders occasionally, and that the most serious looming problem may be water shortages.
(Source: AP, San Diego, May 10, 1999)

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Illegal Aliens

FAIR Estimate - FAIR estimates the state’s illegal alien population as of 2008 is as many as 1,740,000 persons. This is part of an overall estimate of the U.S. illegal alien population of about 13 million persons.

INS/DHS Estimate - The INS (now dissolved into the Dept. of Homeland Security) estimated in February 2003 that the resident illegal population in Texas was 1,041,000 as of January 2000. This number 341,000 higher than the INS' 1996 estimate.  The most recent estimate by DHS put the illegal alien population in the state at 164,000 in 2006.

Other Estimates - The Pew Hispanic Center estimates the illegal alien population of the state at 1,400,000-1,600,000 as of 2005.

COST OF ILLEGAL ALIENS

Incarceration Costs : Texas 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.

The recent SCAAP amounts that Texas has received were:

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 7,854 prisoner years of detention. By FY’02, the state’s reported illegal alien detention rose 73 percent to 13,586 prisoner years, while compensation fell by 12 percent and it has fallen much farther since then.

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 Texas, the proposed payment in fiscal year 2004 is $47,508,379.

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 Texas taxpayer $3.949 billion dollars annually. This cost was partially for educating students who were themselves illegally in the country ($1.645 billion) and in part for the education of their siblings born in the United States to illegal residents ($2.303 billion).

Projected Fiscal Costs

In 2006 we estimated that Texas taxpayers are currently burdened with annual costs of about $4.760 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 $8.014 billion per year in 2010 and to $14.041 billion per year in 2020

INS ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS

A local sociologist who specializes in immigration studies says there are tens of thousands of illegal aliens in Houston, and he wouldn't be surprised if the number tops 100,000. Houston police policy is not to report illegal aliens to the INS. The INS assistant director in charge of investigations, Mike McMahon, says that Houston is the major corridor for smuggling people into the country, and his team of investigators currently has 25 major criminal cases in progress. He adds that in his quarter-century career, he has never before seen alien smugglers engaging in such vicious practices as now, such as holding children for ransom. (Source: Houston Chronicle, Feb. 10, 2000)

PUBLIC VIEWS ON SERVICES FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS

According to an October 1996 statewide poll by Hart Hanks newspapers, a strong majority (61%) of Texans believe that public services including education and health care should be denied to illegal aliens.

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Texas : Poll Data

A study by Rice University of 650 residents of Houston in April, 2007 found that:

• 55.8% agree with imposing fines and criminal charges on employers for employing illegal immigrants
• A majority of Texans say immigration should be decreased (51%) or kept at its present level (31%).
• A large majority said the "main focus of the US government in dealing with the issue of illegal immigration" should be to stop the flow of illegal immigration (56%).
• A majority (52%) think legal immigrants "mostly hurt the economy by driving wages down for many Americans," and
• A larger majority (60%) said the same about illegal immigrants. (Scripps Howard Texas poll, November, 2005 - 5%age point margin of error)
• 64% said the U.S. allows too many legal immigrants into the country. (Scripps Howard Texas, March 2002)
• 93% support tightening restrictions on visas for foreign students. (Scripps Howard Texas, Dec. 2001)

A Houston Area Survey conducted by the University of Houston’s Center of Public Opinion, from February 13-27th, 2007found:

• 73% favor fines and criminal charges against employers who hire illegal aliens
• 48% found increasing immigration “threatens America’s culture”

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Impact of Immigration

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

Population Change

Texas’s population increased by 23.3 percent between 1990 and 2000, and by 12.2 percent between 2000 and 2006, bringing Texas’s total population to approximately 24 million. 

In 2006 Texas was the 5^th fastest growing state in the United States, and accounted for the highest increase in population size among any state. ^2/

Approximately 26.2 percent of the total population increase between 2000 and 2006 in Texas was directly attributable to immigrants.

FAIR estimates the illegal alien population in 2005 at 1,618,000, which ranks 2nd in the U.S. for the FAIR estimate. This number is 55% above the U.S. government estimate of 1,041,000 in 2000, and 269% above the 1990 estimate of 438,000.

According to an estimate of the Pew Hispanic Center, in 2005 there were an estimated 1,400,000 to 1,600,000 illegal aliens living in Texas. This estimate ranks 2^nd among illegal alien populations in the United States for the PEW estimate.^3/

FAIR estimates in 2004 that the taxpayers of Texas spent $3949 million per year on illegal aliens and their children in public schools.^4/

FAIR’s projected annual fiscal costs to Texas taxpayers for emergency medical care, education and incarceration resulting if an amnesty is adopted for illegal residents.
Current	2010	2020
$4,670,000,000	$8,014,000,000	$14,041,000,000

Population  Profile

Foreign-Born Population

Environmental and Quality of Life Profile

Water: Williamson County is predicting a 13 billion-gallon deficit by 2050. The Texas Water Development Board estimates that over the next 50 years, almost 900 cities will either have to drastically reduce water consumption or find new sources to sustain themselves during a drought. ^5/

Water is already a scarce resource in Texas and the increased demand generated by population growth is exacerbating the problem. By 2010,over ten percent of the water needs in urban areas will not be met during times of water shortages. ^6/ El Paso, San Antonio, and Albuquerque could run out of water in ten to 20 years. ^7/ Increased demand for municipal and industrial water use often means buying up and drying out irrigated farmlands - leaving farmers and ranchers without water. As the Texas Agricultural and Natural Resources Summit noted, “As our population increases, water use for municipal purposes will dramatically increase and water for agricultural irrigation will be reduced. Unfortunately, our water resources will stay the same or decline.” ^8/

Population growth has taken a toll on the Rio Grande, which is no longer strong enough to reach the sea. ^9/ So much of the Rio Grande river is being used to accommodate population growth that Larry McKinney of the Texas Parks Wildlife Department commented, “It’s hardly even a river anymore. It’s more a managed irrigation ditch.” ^10/

Traffic: As population growth put more traffic on the roads, the average commute for Texas residents increased 14 percent during the 1990s, to 25 minutes in 2000.^11/, ^12/  40% of Texas's major urban roads are congested, and 29 percent of Texas's major roads are in poor or mediocre condition. Vehicle travel on Texas' highways increased 38% from 1990 to 2003. Driving on roads in need of repair costs Texas motorists $3.8 billion a year in extra vehicle repairs and operating costs --- $294 per motorist. ^13/

Congestion in the Austin metropolitan area costs commuters $867 per person per year in excess fuel and lost time, $263 per person in Beaumont, $111 per person in Corpus Christi, $1,080 per person in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metropolitan area, $330 per person in El Paso, $1,027 per person in the Houston metropolitan area, and $640 per person in the San Antonio area. ^14/

Travelers in the Houston area experience an annual delay of 63 hours, ranking 5^th in the U.S. Travelers in the Dallas-Ft. Worth-Arlington area experience an annual delay of 60 hours, ranking 6^th in the nation. The annual delay for travelers is 33 hours in San Antonio, 14 hours in Beaumont, 8 hours in Laredo, 7 hours in Corpus Christi, and 4 hours in Brownsville. ^15/ 15 percent of commuters in Texas have a commute that is 45 minutes or more. ^16/

Traffic in Austin is expected to be worse than current Los Angeles traffic by 2025. ¹⁷/ Texas traffic is growing so quickly that even if public transit use were to double, the gain would be canceled out by population growth in as little as three months, according to the Texas Public Policy Foundation.^18/

Between 1994 and 2000, San Antonio had the highest increase in traffic congestion in the country, while Austin came in fourth. ^19/ Houston is ranked as having the fifth worst traffic congestion in the country in 2000. ^20/

Disappearing Open Space: Throughout the state, ranchland and farmland is being developed at a rate of 164 acres a day. ^21/ Only ten to 15 percent of the Cross Timbers forest remains. ^22/ More than 60 percent of bottomland hardwoods and 50 percent of the state’s original 1.2 million acres of coastal wetlands have been destroyed.” ^23/

Texas lost 2,151,000 acres of forest land between 1989 and 1999. ^24/

Crowded Housing: In 2005 over 401,000 households were defined as crowded or severely crowded housing. ^25/ In Dallas, almost five percent of all households are severely crowded. ^26/ Studies show that a rise in crowded housing often correlates with an increase in the number of foreign-born. ^27/, ^28/

Sprawl: Texas has lost more prime agricultural acres to development than any other state. ^29/ Texas lost a total of 1.2 million agricultural acres to development between 1992 and 1997, almost double the rate of loss during the previous ten years. ^30/ The vast expanses between Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, and Houston are filling in so quickly with suburbs and sprawl that they may soon become a single metropolitan area. ^31/ As more land is paved over for streets and parking lots, water is prevented from sinking into the soil and replenishing groundwater; Houston is estimated to have lost between 12.8 billion and 29.8 billion gallons of water from 1982 to 1997 as a result. ^32/

Houston’s urban forest declined dramatically from 1972 to 1999, depriving the area of $55 million annually in benefits such as reduced air pollution and enhanced flood control. Land with heavy tree canopy (having tree cover of 50 percent or more) declined to 26 percent of the region, from 31 percent. ^33/

A study of urban sprawl between 1970 and 1990 that calculated the impact of population increase and per capita land use found that 187.4 square miles of additional land were consumed by urban sprawl in the Austin metropolitan area, and 65.1 percent of that sprawl was attributable to population increase. In the Corpus Christi metro area sprawl consumed an additional 25.2 square miles and population increase accounted for 100 percent of the increase. Urban sprawl increased by 372.4 squares miles in Dallas-Ft. Worth, and 100 percent of the sprawl was attributable to population growth. In El Paso, 101 square miles of growth was 63 percent attributable to population growth, 215.1 square miles of growth was 56.2 percent attributable to population growth in San Antonio, 638.7 square miles of growth was 70.1 percent attributably to population growth in Houston, and 91.6 square miles of population growth in McAllen-Edinburgh-Mission are area was 79.4 percent attributable to population growth. ^34/

Border Issues: Texas’s more than 1,800 colonias — unincorporated subdivisions along the Texas-Mexico border, often without basic water and sewer systems, electricity, paved roads, and safe housing — are home to 400,000 people. ^35/ The poverty rate of the 14 counties along the border was 34 percent — double the statewide poverty rate of 17 percent. ^36/ Brownsville’s Cameron Park, home to a large population of illegal aliens, is the poorest community in the U.S. ^37/

Air Quality: 16 or Texas’s 254 counties received a grade of “F” from the American Lung Association in their “State of the Air 2005” report. Three other counties received a “D”, and 5 other counties received a grade of “C”. ^38/

Solid Waste: Texas generates 1.31 tons of solid waste per capita. ^39/

Poverty: In 2005 25.5 percent of immigrant lived below the federal poverty rate, a 30.9 percent increase since 2000. Among non-citizens, the poverty rate climbs to 30.3 percent. ^40/

Immigration and School Overcrowding: Between 2000 and 2006 Texas’s K-12 enrollment increased by over 533,000 students, ^41/, ^42/ and is projected to increase by an additional 784,000 students by the year 2015. ^43/ Texas’s student-teacher ration of 15 ranks 29th in the U.S. ^44/

The resulting teacher shortage is becoming so acute that one-quarter of all new Texas teachers are not fully certified in the field they were hired to teach. ^45/ In Austin, portable classrooms account for about 30 percent of the district’s elementary classrooms. ^46/

Many school districts, including Dallas and Houston, the state’s largest, exceed the state’s student-teacher ratio law. ^47/ Texas will need to build two new schools a week to keep up with enrollment increases. ^48/

Illegal Residents

El Paso County spent $13 million to jail 14,800 illegal aliens in 2000 but only received $1.1 million in compensation from the federal government. ^49/

Border communities spend about $108 million a year on undocumented immigrants, according to a study by the U.S.-Mexico Border Counties Coalition. Most of that went toward jailing immigrants, but Texas border counties paid more than $2.5 million for the costs of providing emergency care, autopsies, and burials. ^50/

Endnotes:

1. FAIR estimate based on the 2006 Current Population Survey.
2. Table A. Leading States/Equivalents by population Changes: July 1, 2005, to July 1, 2006. U.S. Census Bureau.
3. "Estimates of the Unauthorized Migrant Population for  States based on the March 2005 CPS", Pew Hispanic Center.
4. Martin, Jack. “Breaking the Piggy Bank: How Illegal Immigration is Sending Schools into the Red,” A Report by the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
5. “Table DP-1-4,Profile of General Demographic Characteristics:1990,” 1990 Census, U.S. Census Bureau.
6. Maeve Reston, “Shortages Looming in Some Districts,” Austin American-Statesman, August 17,2000.
7. Monica Wolfson ,“Water Problems in Texas,” Scripps Howard News Service, February 25,2002.
8. Patrick Barta, “Surf and Turf: Battle Brews Over Water Realignment,” Wall Street Journal ,October 8,1997.
9. Timothy Egan, “Near Vast Bodies of Water, Land Lies Parched “ New York Times, August 12, 2001.
10. “Water in Texas,” Texas Agricultural and Natural Resources Summit Initiative, November 1996.
11. “Table DP-1-4,Profile of General Demographic Characteristics:2000,” Census 2000, U.S. Census Bureau.
12. “Table DP-1-4,Profile of General Demographic Characteristics:1990,” 1990 Census, U.S. Census Bureau.
13. Report Card for America's Infrastructure 2005," American Society of Civil Engineers.
14. Ibid
15. "The 2005 Urban Mobility Report", Texas Transportation Institute.
16. “U.S. Population 2007 Data Sheet,” Population Reference Bureau.
17. Thomas A. Rubin and Wendell Cox, “The Road Ahead: Innovations for Better
18. Transportation in Texas,” Texas Public Policy Foundation, February 27,2001.
19. Ibid.
20. Scott Huddleston, “S.A. Tops in Traffic Congestion,” San Antonio Express-News, June 21,2002.
21. Scott Huddleston, “S.A. Tops in Traffic Congestion,” San Antonio Express-News, June 21,2002.
22. Josh Shaffer and Ellen Schroeder, “As Development Spreads, Open Land is Disappearing in Texas,” Dallas Morning News, March 18,2002.
23. Josh Shaffer and Ellen Schroeder, “As Development Spreads, Open Land is Disappearing in Texas,” Dallas Morning News, March 18,2002.
24. “Environment and Natural Resources: Trends and Implications,” Texas Agricultural and Natural Resources Summit Initiative, November 1996.
25. Selected Housing Characteristics: 2005 Data Set - 2005 American Community Survey, American Fact Finder, U.S. Census Bureau.
26. “Table DP-4,Profile of General Demographic.
27. Haya El Nasser, “U.S. Neighborhoods Grow More Crowded,” USA Today, July 7,2002.
28. Randy Capps, “Hardship among Children of Immigrants: Finding from the 1999 National Survey of America’s Families,” Urban Institute, 2001.
29. “Texas Leads The U.S. In Ag Land Loss,” American Farmland Trust.
30. Ibid
31. Patrick Barta, “A New Way of Looking at Texas: One Big City,” Texas Journal ,November 11,1998.
32. Mike Snyder, “Cities Losing Water to Sprawl,” The Houston Chronicle, August 29,2002.
33. Bill Dawson, “City’s Tree Canopy is Getting Thinner,” The Houston Chronicle, December 13,2000.
34. Beck, Roy and Leon Kolankiewicz, “Weighing Sprawl Factors in Large U.S. Cities,” NumbersUSA, March 2001.
35. Alison Gregor, “Colonia Residents Getting Lon Overdue Services,” San Antonio Express-News, January 27,2002.
36. Lisa Falkenberg, “Comptroller Zeros-in on Ills of Region Along Texas-Mexico Border,” Associated Press ,March 27,2001.
37. Carlton Stowers, “Hope in Hell: Cameron Park, Texas, is the Poorest Town in the U.S.A.,” Dallas Observer, July 11,2002.
38. “State of the Air 2005: Texas”, American Lung Association.
39. Report Card for America's Infrastructure 2005," American Society of Civil Engineers.
40. “Texas State Factsheet,” Migration Information Source, Migration Policy Institute.
41. "Overview of Public Elementary and Secondary Schools and Districts: School Year 1999-2000," National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education.
42. "Public Elementary and Secondary School Student Enrollment, High School Completions, and Staff From the Common Core of Data: School Year 2005-06', National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education, June 2007.
43. Projections of Education Statistics to 2015, National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education.
44. "Public Elementary and Secondary School Student Enrollment, High School Completions, and Staff From the Common Core of Data: School Year 2005-06', National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education, June 2007.
45. “For Kids, Everything’s Bigger in Texas,” Center for Public Policy Priorities, May 22,2001.
46. Thomas Hargrove, “Teaching Without a License, a Growing American Trend,” Scripps Howard News Service, August 21,2001.
47. A Back to School Special Report on the Baby Boom Echo,” U.S. Department of Education, August 21,1997.
48. Dallas, Houston Have Most Crowded Classrooms in State,” Associated Press, July 30,2002.
49. “Federal Government Makes $1.1 Million Payment to County for Jail Costs,” Associated Press, November 1,2001.
50. Dane Schiller,“$50 Million Proposed for Border Costs,” San Antonio Express-News, February 8,2001.

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