Posted on 02/24/2003 9:22:04 AM PST by oldoverholt
New Hoosiers set dubious mark 309 percent increase in illegal newcomers is attributed to state's jobs in agriculture.
By John Fritze john.fritze@indystar.com February 24, 2003
The number of illegal immigrants in Indiana shot up by more than 300 percent over the past decade, a rate three times that of the United States, according to recent Immigration and Naturalization Service estimates.
California and Texas maintained the highest number of illegal immigrants, but the sharpest growth occurred in the Southeast and Midwest -- suggesting that many new arrivals found states such as Indiana more attractive than traditional gateway hubs.
The surge of illegal immigrants in Indiana -- to 45,000 in 2000 from 11,000 in 1990 -- was probably driven largely by Hispanics who came here to take jobs in the state's substantial agricultural industry, several experts said.
In the Indianapolis metro area, the Hispanic population rose from 11,084 in 1990 to 42,994 -- an increase of 288 percent.
"The growth of Latinos in the Midwest has been just explosive," said Allert Brown-Gort, associate director of the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame. "There's an incredible demand for these people."
States such as California, with about 2.2 million illegal immigrants, and Texas, with more than 1 million, have drawn huge numbers of legal and illegal immigrants for decades, but that population rush now appears to be spreading to other parts of the country.
"The fact is that the unskilled-job markets have been saturated in those other places," said Steve Camarota with the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington group that favors stricter limits on immigration.
North Carolina and Georgia posted the largest gains -- more than 500 percent -- with undocumented populations increasing to around 200,000. Ohio, Michigan and Kentucky all showed increases of 200 percent to 300 percent. Nationally, the illegal population doubled to 7 million, the estimates show.
Illegal immigrants create challenges for government, medicine, education and labor -- all of which must try to grapple with and, in some cases, serve a population that does its best to go unnoticed.
"When you get into the entire debate, there's any number of issues that come out of it," said Don Ferguson, the officer in charge of the Indianapolis INS office.
Even counting the population -- as the INS has tried to do -- is difficult, and some questioned the accuracy of the estimates. The data came with a 21/2-page explanation of the way the numbers were derived.
The estimates are based loosely on the 2000 census. The agency speculated on how many of each state's foreign-born population -- 186,000 in Indiana -- were illegal. But because many undocumented immigrants refuse to complete a census form, the INS had to assume a large margin of error.
The numbers also were calculated with data collected prior to Sept. 11, 2001, before the federal government stepped up border patrols.
Some argued that undocumented immigrants support the economy by taking jobs that few others want.
"They're trying to fulfill the American dream," said Angela Kelley of the National Immigration Forum, "but they have to do it while looking over their shoulder."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Call Star reporter John Fritze at 1-317-444-6387.
This of course neglects to include the social services such as schools and health care that people do want and that illegals take from citizens. As for cheap labour being useful you could argue that it stifles innovation. Why develop a robotic lettuce harvester when the farm owners can hire a few amigos cheaply?
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