MIT-Yale Study Doubles Estimates of U.S. Undocumented Immigrants
A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent directs a group of undocumented men being deported to Mexico at the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego, California, on Feb. 26, 2015.
Photographer: David Maung/Bloomberg
The U.S. may have double the number of undocumented immigrants as commonly estimated, according to a new study that has the potential to further fuel the debate over one of the nation’s most politically charged topics.
While the U.S. government and several outside groups have put the number of undocumented migrants at about 11 million or 12 million, the paper issued Friday by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Yale University gives a “conservative estimate” of 16.7 million in 2016, with an average simulation of 22.1 million.