The topic of illegal immigration has attracted the opinions of almost everyone in the entire country, though it hasn’t attracted quite as much controversy in the 15 states with the fewest illegal immigrants in America. The issue of undocumented immigrants in the country has no correct answer; both sides for and against have valid concerns which need to be addressed. However, for the past several years, Americans generally seemed to have little issue with illegal immigrants in their lives, and while protests against their presence did take place, it never reached the furor it has managed today. The reason behind this increased interest in undocumented immigrants lies in the fact that it was one of the cornerstones of Donald Trump’s campaign and perhaps one of the most important reasons behind him being elected and gaining support from the conservative states.
After he was elected, many thought that Trump’s promises were just words to get him elected and that he did not intend to enforce them at all. However, recent events have shown that this school of thought was in reality simply futile hope, and Trump is more bent on maintaining his ideas than even the most optimistic supporter would have thought. In fact, while Trump recently showed an openness to work along with those illegal immigrants who were law abiding and had been in the country for several years, the reality is that very recently, new policies were released under the Trump administration that are so wide-ranging that they can lead to the deportation of the entire 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States.
Immigrants aren’t an exception as much as they are an integral part of the identity of the United States. Immigrants have always been present in vast numbers in the country, with 2.2 million immigrants present in the US in 1850, which saw them make up around 10% of the population. This ratio has slightly increased in the next 165 years, with immigrants now making up around 13.3% of the population, as confirmed by Migration Policy. In 2014, 1.2 million immigrants entered the country, with Indians leading the pack.
Illegal immigrants tend to stay in similar places, which is why it is not really a surprise to find out that 59% of the total illegal immigrants in the country reside in just 6 states. You can learn more about the areas preferred by illegal immigrants in 25 Cities with the Most Illegal Immigrants in America. Furthermore, while many people have a perception of illegal immigrants simply cropping up one day and stealing their jobs and adding to the burden on the economy, the truth is that around 60% of the illegal immigrants in the United States have actually been in the country for at least 10 years. While many may consider that removing illegal immigrants will actually benefit the country, I see little evidence to support the belief that uprooting families that have been living in the country for several years and have established a proper life here will have a positive impact instead of a negative impact. To show what an impact immigrants have made in the country, “A Day without Immigrants” was carried out February 16, where immigrants stayed home instead of showing up to work to demonstrate how the country would suffer if immigrants weren’t present. Of course, they also had to face repercussions with many of those participating in the demonstration being fired by their bosses for missing work.
Of course, these are issues that the states with low illegal immigrant populations do not have to worry about. So which states have the fewest illegal immigrants? We used Migration Policy’s report on the number of illegal immigrants in each state. However, we did not just select the state which had the smallest populations of illegal immigrants. After all, while Rhode Island may have only 29,000 illegal immigrants, due to its low total population, it has a high number of illegal immigrants per capita. Hence, we determined the illegal immigrants per capita of each state, by dividing the number of illegal immigrants with the total population to come up with a more accurate ranking of states with the fewest illegal immigrants in America.
