Top 10 States Being Invaded By Illegal Immigrants

Unauthorized immigrants usually reside in states that historically have welcomed them, such as California, Texas, Florida, New York, New Jersey, and Illinois. However, these states can provide only a limited number of jobs for the mostly unskilled illegal immigrant population. As the number of illegal immigrants swelled from about 3.6 million in 1990 to 11.1 million in 2009, illegal immigrants opted to explore new states for their livelihood.

A study by Harvard professor G. Borjas states that illegal immigrants hurt the unskilled population in the areas they moved into and benefited the other residents because the services previously provided by unskilled locals could now be purchased at a lower price. Any economist would tell you that an increase in the supply of unskilled labor will depress the wages for those services. It wouldn’t be a stretch to claim that unskilled illegal immigrants are one of the factors causing poverty (See the list of ten states with the highest poverty rates in America).

Since illegal immigrants depress wages in the market where only a limited number of jobs are available, it was only natural to see the illegal immigrant population move to states where illegals are rare and the jobs for which they’re qualified are plenty. Insider Monkey, your source for free insider trading data, compiled the number of illegal immigrants in each state and calculated the change between 2005 and 2009 (We used Pew Hispanic Center’s data, which was derived from Census data). There were 11 million illegal immigrants in this country in 2005. That’s about the same number as in 2009. However, the illegal immigrant population declined in some states (See the list of states illegal immigrants are deserting) and increased in others. Here are the 10 states to where illegal immigrants are heading in large numbers:

10. Tie Between Wisconsin and Ohio: 20 thousand more illegal immigrants reside in each of Wisconsin and Ohio. This is a 20% increase, and the eleventh highest in the nation.

9. Missouri: 20 thousand more illegal immigrants reside in Missouri in 2009 compared to 2005. This 50% increase is the third highest among all states.

8. Connecticut: 25 thousand more illegal immigrants live in Connecticut in 2009 compared to 2005. This 29 %t increase is also the ninth highest in the nation.

7. Oregon: 30 thousand more illegal immigrants live in Oregon in 2009 compared to 2005. The percentage increase in 21%, the tenth highest in the nation.

6. New Mexico: 30 thousand more illegal immigrants reside in New Mexico in 2009 compared to 2005. This 46% increase in number of illegal immigrants is the fifth highest in the nation.

5. Indiana: 35 thousand more illegal immigrants reside in Indiana in 2009 compared to 2005. This 41% increase is the sixth highest in the nation.

4. Louisiana: 40 thousand more illegal immigrants live in Louisiana in 2009 compared to 2005. This 160% increase is the highest in the nation.

3. Alabama: 70 thousand more illegal immigrants live in Alabama in 2009. This 117% increase is the second highest percentage increase.

2. Illinois: 175 thousand more illegal immigrants live currently in Illinois compared to 2005. This 50% increase is the third highest.

1. Texas: 200 thousand more illegal immigrants live currently in Texas compared to 2005. This is only a 14% increase though from previous levels.