Undocumented immigrants living in Texas, New Mexico on downward trend, report shows

EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14) — Pew Research Center is releasing its latest estimates on how many undocumented immigrants are living in the United States and that number is lower in Texas and New Mexico than previous years.

The report was released Feb. 5, but the latest estimates are from 2016.

It shows that 5.7 percent of Texas residents are undocumented and less than 3 percent of New Mexico’s population is undocumented.

That’s a downward trend. The report shows the undocumented population in Texas hasn’t been that low since 2009 and hasn’t been that low in New Mexico since 2000.

Still, though, Texas has the second-highest undocumented population in the country, next to California.

That number is slowing, though, as Pew’s report shows that undocumented immigrants arriving in the last 5 years is lowest in the western half of the United States.

The report says one reason is because undocumented immigrants arriving in the western states are normally from Mexico, but immigrants from Mexico have plummeted in the past decade.

Aside from a low number of new arrivals, Pew’s report shows that 73 percent of undocumented immigrants in Texas are Mexican nationality and in New Mexico, 91 percent of the population is Mexican.

Nationally, undocumented immigrants from Central America is the most recent upward trend.

The report shows that 4.2 percent of New Mexico’s labor force is undocumented and in Texas, that number nearly doubles to 8.2 percent.

In both states, the report says construction is the industry where most undocumented immigrants are working.

The report says the occupation with the most undocumented workers is “Service.”

The report says overall, there is not a single state in the U.S. where undocumented immigrant outnumber documented ones.