upper waypoint

Fate Still Unclear For Millions of Undocumented Immigrants [Interactive Population Map]

Save ArticleSave Article
Failed to save article

Please try again

[http_redir]

Things got all the more confusing for America's 11 million-plus undocumented immigrants when a federal judge on Monday blocked President Obama's recent executive actions to defer millions of deportations.

Citing an administrative technicality, the Texas judge issued a temporary injunction that stalls two programs Obama announced in November, largely in response to frustration over Congress' failure to enact any kind of comprehensive immigration reform.

One of the initiatives is an expansion of the administration's original Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which would allow undocumented immigrants older than 30 who came to the U.S. illegally as children to apply for deportation deferrals and work permits. The Department of Homeland Security was supposed to start accepting applications for the program this week, but has since postponed doing so, leaving an estimated 290,000 eligible applicants in the balance.

Obama's second program, which was set to go into effect this spring, would allow undocumented parents of U.S. citizens and green card holders who have lived in the U.S. for at least five years to apply for a 3-year deportation deferral. An estimated 3.7 million immigrants are expected to qualify.

Sponsored

The judge's injunction comes after 26 mostly conservative states sued to stop Obama's actions, claiming he had exceeded his constitutional authority and that the new programs would impose undue financial burdens. The administration said it would appeal the ruling and may try to seek an emergency order to allow the programs to go into effect.

The situation is  just the latest in a long running series of dramas concerning U.S. immigration policy, particularly the question of how to deal with the roughly 11.4 million undocumented immigrants who live here. Check out the interactive map below, produced by The Pew Charitable Trusts, to explore where America's undocumented population lives today, how that distribution has changed in the last half-century and the impact on individual states. (Note that the data is from 2010 and population rates have changed slightly since then.)


lower waypoint
next waypoint