Zero Hedge
February 10, 2017
As Trump gets set to ramp up pressure on so-called “sanctuary cities”, and sanctuary states in the case of California, here is a look at where the majority of illegal immigrants in the United States are currently residing. Per data from the Pew Research Center, approximately 60% of all illegal immigrants live in just 20 metropolitan areas across the country.
Most of the United States’ 11.1 million unauthorized immigrants live in just 20 major metropolitan areas, with the largest populations in New York, Los Angeles and Houston, according to new Pew Research Center estimates based on government data.
The analysis shows that the nation’s unauthorized immigrant population is highly concentrated, more so than the U.S. population overall. In 2014, the 20 metro areas with most unauthorized immigrants were home to 6.8 million of them, or 61% of the estimated nationwide total. By contrast, only 36% of the total U.S. population lived in those metro areas.
By far the biggest unauthorized immigrant populations were in the New York and Los Angeles metro areas (1.2 million and 1 million, respectively). No other metro area approached a million. Among the top 20 areas, the smallest unauthorized immigrant populations included Orlando (110,000) and Austin (100,000).
Meanwhile, the top 10 metropolitan areas alone account for nearly 50% of illegal immigrants and just three states, California, Texas and New York, make up roughly 37% of the total.
Of course, these numbers will become increasingly important over the coming months as the Trump administration continues to develop policy related to what will undoubtedly be a controversial topic for the next 4-8 years. In a recent interview on Fox News, President Trump intimated to Bill O’Reilly that all options, including the defunding of entire states, would be on the table for places that refuse to…