Undocumented Workers

Abstract

For the United States, the presence of undocumented workers — those workers without a visa or other paperwork authorizing them to work — raises considerable economic, social, public policy, security and even moral questions. An estimated 11.3 million unauthorized immigrants were living in the United States as of 2016 (Passel & Cohn, 2017), and many work as day laborers and in low-pay, physically demanding industries such as construction and domestic service, though they face the ever-present threat of deportation or exploitation. Debates rage over whether the United States should grant amnesty or a path to citizenship to undocumented workers, offer a guest worker program to supply cheap labor to vital segments of the economy such as agribusiness, or simply deport as many undocumented workers as possible and fortify the U.S.-Mexican border to keep them out of the country. With the U.S. Latino population rising, and predicted to surpass the majority white population sometime in mid-century, discussions about what to do regarding undocumented workers, many of whom are Latino, has taken on added social, political and demographic significance at the start of the 21st century.

Overview

Undocumented workers continue to pose public policy challenges for American politicians, while also presenting economic implications for American workers and taxpayers. Undocumented workers in the United States are those foreign workers, particularly from Mexico and Latin America, who are not legally authorized to work in the United States. They are undocumented because they do not have work papers allowing them to be properly documented and taxed by local, state, and federal government authorities.

Undocumented workers are often referred to as illegal immigrants, to contrast them with the millions of foreign-born residents who live and work in the United States legally. In truth, undocumented workers are but a subset of the larger unauthorized immigrant population, which is also comprised of the children and other relatives of undocumented workers. Many undocumented workers and their families and relatives remain in the United States year-round, sometimes migrating from state to state or region to region in search of construction, service, factory, and agricultural work. A large percentage of undocumented workers set aside a portion of their income to send back to relatives in their impoverished homelands (Preston, 2008).

The issue of undocumented workers is not restricted to the United States and its Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking immigrants. Rather, as one looks at the global pool of migrant workers and the ebbs and flows of migrant labor, it becomes clear that the phenomenon is occurring across the globe (Appleyard, 2001). This is the case in nations and regions as distinct as South Africa (Human Rights Watch Africa, 1998), East Asia (Chia, 2006), Belgium (Grzymala-Kazlowska, 2005), the Netherlands (Van der Leun & Kloosterman, 2006), and Great Britain (Anderson, 2001). Much of both legal and illegal immigration has been to cities, including those identified as part of Friedmann's world city hypothesis (Friedman, 1986) for human migration in the twenty-first century. A number of countries around the world have taken measures in recent decades to control immigration, including that subset of migrants referred to as undocumented workers or illegal immigrants (Cornelius, Hollifield, & Martin, 2003).

This essay will focus on the sociological, economic, and political aspects of undocumented workers in the United States' labor force. It will begin with history and demographics, proceed to the economic and cultural dimensions of undocumented workers, and conclude with the ongoing public policy debate over the place of undocumented workers in American society.

History

Since the later twentieth century undocumented workers in the United States have arrived as part of a wave of migration primarily from developing countries. This has happened for three reasons: 1965 amendments to the Immigration and Naturalization Act, which changed the longstanding system of immigrant quotas based on country of origin; new legislation in the 1960s allowing for political refugees to emigrate; and an influx of undocumented workers as "part of the worldwide emergence during the 1960s of labor migration from less developed to more developed countries" (Bean, Telles & Lowell, 1987, p. 672). By 1981, the final report of the nonpartisan Select Committee on Immigration and Refugee Policy, established by President Jimmy Carter, concluded, "One issue has emerged as most pressing--the problem of undocumented/illegal migration" (cited in Bean, Telles & Lowell, 1987, p. 673).

This shift in migration from European and other developed nations to migration from the developing world has had several effects within the wider US population. First, it made these largely non-white, non-English-speaking immigrants more visible. Second, since many of the new immigrants were poor and had few job skills, their arrival shifted the general population's assertion that immigrants were a net bonus to the economy to a perception that immigrants were a net drain on the economy, therefore breeding varying degrees of resentment. Attention has turned primarily to Latino undocumented immigrants because they make up the great majority of undocumented workers in the United States (Bean, Telles & Lowell, 1987, p. 672).

As in other nations, there have been recent moves in the United States to limit legal immigration from impoverished nations while increasing the number of visas given to workers with in-demand skills such as nursing and information technology (Marshall, 2007, p. 5). But most of the debate about immigration to the United States in the early years of the twenty-first century has focused on undocumented workers, whom a sizable part of the American electorate refers to simply as illegal immigrants. The debate largely revolves around the economic impact of undocumented migrant labor, either on wages and the cost of living, or on the utilization of social services paid for through taxation. There are also questions of pragmatism, ethics, and morality that form the backdrop for the economic discussion.

Since the passage of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, amnesty for undocumented workers has been often discussed. The 1986 law gave legal status to 1.7 million undocumented immigrants who had been living in the country before 1982, and another 1.3 were allowed to come to the United States as special agricultural workers (Tienda & Singer, 1995, p. 112). Amnesty has proven to be a more difficult proposition in the political climate of the twenty-first century, and other solutions, such as the guest worker program proposed by President George W. Bush, have been proposed as less-volatile alternatives.

On June 27, 2013, the US Senate passed S.744, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act (Congress.gov, 2013). According to the National Immigration Law Center (2013), the bill, had it been enacted, would have represented a comprehensive overhaul of immigration law, with provisions for a road to US citizenship for millions of unauthorized immigrants, funding for militarizing the nation’s border with Mexico, reconfiguration of the family immigration system, and rigorous enforcement and deportation policies, including the use of an employment eligibility verification system known as E-Verify. While the Senate passed the bill, the House of Representatives did not consider the bill and allowed the bill to die.

Further Insights

The Worker's Role in the Labor Market. Americans have had an uneasy relationship with undocumented immigrants and workers ever since they became a large part of the American economy beginning in the southwestern United States in the late nineteenth century. On one hand, undocumented workers have been seen as vital to several large segments of the US economy, agribusiness in particular. Undocumented workers are perceived to be willing to do the jobs that few Americans are willing to do, especially at the wages provided.

On the other hand, undocumented workers have been seen as a drain on the economy because, some have argued, they drive down the cost of labor, thus pricing native-born laborers out of the market. When combined with moral zeal—the desire to punish undocumented workers for breaking the law—the negative attitude toward undocumented workers can spill over into plans for mass deportation. Such mass deportations of undocumented Mexican laborers took place in the 1930s and 1950s (Hoffman, 1974), though in between, during World War II in 1942, the federal government's Bracero Program brought 4.5 million Mexicans to the United States to help alleviate the labor shortage in agribusiness. For most of the past century, Mexican workers, in particular, have been "treated as disposable workers, easily returned to Mexico when no longer needed, brought back when economic conditions improve" (García, 1981, p. 122).

Demographics. Estimates of the number of undocumented workers in the United States vary widely, with some putting the number as high as 20 million (Marshall, 2007, p. 1), and it is often difficult to disentangle political motivations and arrive at reliable statistics. An estimate by the nonpartisan Pew Hispanic Center in 2002 put the number of undocumented immigrants in the United States at 7.8 million (Bean, Van Hook, & Woodrow-Lafield, 2002), and at about 8 million in 2014 (Lopez & Bialik, 2017). The 2002 numbers include 5.3 million undocumented workers over the age of 18 in the labor force (Bean, Van Hook, & Woodrow-Lafield, 2002, p. 2). An estimated 29 percent of all foreign-born US residents in 2004 were illegal immigrants (Passel, 2005b, p. 2). A 2005 Pew Hispanic Center report estimated 10.3 million illegal immigrants in 2004, with the number reaching 12.2 million in 2007. (Passel, 2005a, p. 1; Passel & Cohn, 2017). The US Department of Homeland Security estimated the presence of 11.6 million undocumented immigrants in 2010, and in 2011 released statistics showing a slight drop in the number to 11.5 million. The report cited that this was likely the result of increased border control enforcement and improved economic conditions in Mexico, while the unemployment rate in the United States was high (Reuters, 2012). The Pew Hispanic Center, in contrast, reported 11.1 undocumented immigrants in 2011 (Passel & Cohn, 2012). The center had reported similar numbers for 2009 and 2010, and its reports for these years showed a decline in the population since its peak of 12.2 million in 2007. The Pew Hispanic Center also cited a decline in Mexican immigration as the reason for this dropping number. However, in 2013, the Pew Hispanic Center reported an increase in the number of undocumented immigrants once again. According to their research, 11.7 million undocumented immigrants were living in the United States in 2012 (Passel, Cohn, & Gonzalez-Barrera, 2013). By 2016, the population had dipped to 11.3 million undocumented immigrants (Lopez & Bialik, 2017).

Most of the undocumented immigrants in the United States in 2004 were from Mexico (57%) and Latin America (24%), followed by Asia (9%) and Canada/Europe (6%) (Passel, 2005b, p. 2). According to many researchers, "a great majority of the Mexican-origin and Central and South American origin population that arrived since 1990 is undocumented" (Bean, Van Hook, & Woodrow-Lafield, 2002, p. 2). According to the Homeland Security report, as of January 2011, approximately 59 percent of undocumented immigrants had come from Mexico (6.8 million), with El Salvador a distant second (,000) (Reuters, 2012). The 2012 Homeland Security report noted that the estimated population of unauthorized immigrants in the United States was 11.4 million and of these, 6.72 million or 59 percent were from Mexico; El Salvador remained a distant second with 6 percent or 690,000 unauthorized immigrants in the United States in 2012 (US Dept. of Homeland Security, 2013). According to the Pew Hispanic Center, which uses a different estimation methodology, 52 percent of undocumented immigrants in 2012 came from Mexico. In 2017, researchers from the Pew Research Center reported that the decline in unauthorized immigrants dropped between 2007 and 2015 in large part due to a decrease in the number of unauthorized immigrants from Mexico (Lopez & Bialik, 2017 Passel & Cohn, 2017).

About one-sixth of all undocumented immigrants in 2004 (1.7 million) were minor children, while almost no undocumented workers were over the age of 65 (Passel, 2005a, p. 3). Only 29 percent of all undocumented immigrants were women. In 2009, the Pew Hispanic Center reported 6.3 million men, 4.1 million women, and 1.5 million children as unauthorized immigrants (Passel & Cohn, 2009). The Pew Hispanic Center estimated that out of the 11.1 unauthorized immigrants living in the United States by 2011, 1 million of them were minors under the age of 18, and 4.5 million children born in the US had unauthorized parents ("Nation of Immigrants," 2013). Geographically, unauthorized immigrants and undocumented workers are spread over a much wider area than they were in the past. While in 2004, 68 percent of unauthorized immigrants lived in just eight states, this was down from the 88 percent who lived in only six states in 1990 (Passel, 2005b, pp. 2-3). Nevertheless, the majority of unauthorized immigrants have continued to live in six states: Florida, Texas, California, Illinois, New Jersey, and New York. (Passel, Cohn, & Gonzalez-Barrera, 2013; US DHS, 2013).

Undocumented workers from Mexico and Latin America, who form the great majority of undocumented workers in the United States, tend to have low levels of education and job skills. In a study of undocumented Mexican immigrants coming to the United States between 1992 and 2002, researchers at Mexico's Instituto Tecnológico de México found that "over three-fourths of unauthorized Mexican immigrants had less than eight years of formal education; 11% had no formal education at all; and one-third had less than four years" (cited in Marshall, 2007, p. 5). Researchers from the Pew Research Center reported that in 2015, 57 percent of immigrants from Mexico had less than a high school education (Lopez & Bialik, 2017).

Perhaps complicating discussions of unauthorized immigrants and undocumented workers is the fact there has been a considerable amount of legal immigration from Mexico and Latin America. Indeed, it may be the case that "[b]ecause almost all undocumented immigrants are Latino or Asian in origin.…, the increasing numbers of legal Latino and Asian immigrants may have fostered the impression that the volume and impact of undocumented immigration has been greater than it actually has been" (Bean, Telles & Lowell, 1987, p. 671).

Industries, Employment & Economics. By 2002, undocumented workers constituted about 4 percent of the adult US workforce, and they tended to be concentrated in industries requiring considerable amounts of manual labor. There were an estimated one million undocumented workers concentrated in each of four specific industrial niches: "manufacturing (especially non-durables such as apparel manufacturing), wholesale and retail trades, and services." More specifically, "about 10 percent of U.S. restaurant workers and nearly a quarter of U.S. private household workers are undocumented" (Lowell & Fry, 2002, p. 4). A 2009 Pew Hispanic Center report cited 5.4% of the US labor force as unauthorized and largely concentrated in farming, grounds-keeping and maintenance, construction, food preparation and service, production, transportation, and the civilian labor force (Passel & Cohn, 2009). The percentage of unauthorized workers varies at the state level. For example, 10% of the labor force in Nevada, California, and Arizona is made up of unauthorized immigrants, whereas less than 2.5 percent of the workforce is unauthorized in the Midwest (Passel & Cohn, 2009). There has also been a rising trend in the use of illegal day labor, particularly in large metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles (Abendschein, 2006), something that is not wholly without historical precedent (Friedricks, 1990).

Debate has continued over the economic inputs and outputs of undocumented workers. A 2004 report from the Pew Hispanic Center indicates that the average annual household income for undocumented workers was $27,400, considerably less than the $47,800 for legal immigrant families (Passel, 2005b). The 2009 Pew Center report cited $36,000 as the median annual household income of unauthorized immigrants in 2007; the median for US citizens was $50,000 (Passel & Cohn, 2009). A 2007 Congressional Budget Office report cited various studies estimating the amount of local, state, and federal taxes paid by undocumented workers, but the percentages varied widely (Congressional Budget Office, 2007). There is some evidence that wages of undocumented workers improve over time, though not by large amounts (Tienda & Singer, 1995). The 2009 Pew Center report states that unauthorized immigrants "do not make notable gains, as other immigrants do, the longer they have been in the United States" (Passel & Cohn, 2009). Puerto Rican and Cuban workers seem to be at an advantage compared to their Mexican counterparts (Bansak, 2005). It is the case, however, that undocumented workers receive most of their social services through state and local governments, which do not face the same restrictions as the federal government in offering public assistance to undocumented workers (Congressional Budget Office, 2007).

An Informal Economy. Perhaps unsurprisingly, undocumented workers often get paid by their employers "under the table," meaning that their wages are often paid in cash and are not reported to the Internal Revenue Service. This has created an underground, cash-based economy in many of the largest cities in the United States. In recent years some banks and mortgage companies have cut back documentation requirements to make it easier for undocumented workers to open bank accounts and qualify for home loans.

Social scientists have shown the value of social networks in helping undocumented workers find employment in this informal economy once they arrive in the United States (Hondagneu-Sotelo, 1994; Yamamoto, 2006). These informal networks allow undocumented workers to maximize their chances of finding work while minimizing the chance that they will be apprehended by immigration services and deported. According to Marshall (2007), "very effective informal immigrant information and support networks give employers a dependable supply of labor. Since 1986, these networks have been strengthened by the spread of relatively inexpensive information technology, especially cell phones and radios" (p. 3).

Worker Exploitation. One continuing problem for undocumented workers is the risk of exploitation from employers who are well aware that undocumented workers are hesitant to report abuses for fear of being deported. This exploitation can take the form of unsafe working conditions, lack of payment, or even physical and emotional abuse (Williams, 2006). Some sociologists and others suggest that unions would increase the bargaining position of undocumented workers (Gabriel, 2006), though unions themselves have been ambivalent. Whether undocumented workers have a legal right to unemployment compensation for on-the-job injuries remains a matter of debate on both the state and federal level (Query, 2006).

Options for Undocumented Workers. Perhaps the only area of agreement in the ongoing debate over undocumented workers is that the status quo is not sustainable over the long term. Opponents of undocumented labor argue that the influx of undocumented workers is putting an unhealthy strain on the economy and on the provision of social services. Supporters of undocumented labor argue that the current system stigmatizes and takes undue economic advantage of millions of hard-working individuals who come to the United States in search of a better life for themselves and their families.

Various conflicting immigration reform measures have been proposed, including:

• A secure national identification card program to allow only legal immigrants or guest workers to find employment;
• A higher minimum wage to make low-wage jobs more appealing to domestic workers, particularly those with few job skills and low levels of formal education (Marshall, 2007);
• Fines and other measures against employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers (Perry, 2008);
• A path to legal status and/or citizenship for some percentage of undocumented workers who have lived in the United States for a certain period of time and have a clean criminal record;
• A system that would let workers come to the United States for a certain period of time—such as on a temporary work permit—to work in industries such as agribusiness;
• The construction of a wall and/or an increased number of border agents along the US-Mexico border; and
• Creating trade agreements with Mexico and Latin America to boost domestic economies and thus reduce economic incentives for legal and illegal immigration (Boyle, 2007).

There has been no political consensus on any of these measures. Marshall states, "Unlike many other policy issues, there are no clear political alignments on immigration, making it difficult to build the coalitions needed to align the complex components of a successful immigration policy" (2007, p. 1).

Viewpoints

Views of Foreign-Born & Native-Born Latino Immigrants on Undocumented Workers

Surveys of Latinos have consistently shown their greater willingness than their native-born neighbors to offer undocumented workers a path to legalization and citizenship. Latinos also tend to dispute the claim that undocumented workers are a net drain on the US economy. A 2006 survey by Suro & Escobar of the Pew Hispanic Center showed clear trends and revealed some important nuances:

In the current survey, most Latinos (72%) said illegal immigrants help the economy by providing low-cost labor, while a minority (21%) says they hurt by driving down wages. Majorities favor a temporary worker program for all undocumented immigrants. But like the rest of the American public, though to a lesser extent, there are divisions among Latinos on immigration and the policy options. For example, a significant minority (41%) said only undocumented immigrants who have been in the country for at least five years should be permitted to stay. Unlike the general public, however, only a small fraction of Latinos (5%) said that no undocumented immigrants should get a chance to stay and become citizens (Suro & Escobar, 2006, p. 15).

Evident in the survey results are differences of opinion between native-born Latinos and foreign-born Latinos, as well as differences between Latinos of different national origins:

Nativity has repeatedly proved to be the major dividing line on this topic, with nearly twice as many native-born Latinos (28%) seeing economic harm from illegal immigration. Among national origins groups, much smaller majorities of Puerto Ricans (57%) and Cubans (50%) take a positive view of the economic impact of illegal migration than among Mexicans (78%) or Central and South Americans (71%). All Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens by birth and virtually all Cubans are either U.S. citizens or legal immigrants. Both Puerto Ricans (35%) and Cubans (39%) are more than twice as likely as Latinos of Mexican origins (16%) to say that unauthorized immigrants hurt the economy (Suro & Escobar, 2006, p. 15).

The polling data shows that while there are areas of broad consensus within the Latino community regarding undocumented workers, it is important not to view the Latino community as uniformly supportive of undocumented workers. Indeed, when asked if they favored allowing all illegal immigrants to remain in the United States, 61% of first-generation immigrants agreed, while only 41% of third-generation immigrants did so (Suro & Escobar, 2006, p. 19).

Since the 2006 report, Latino views of the impact of illegal immigration on their communities have improved. A 2013 Pew Center report showed that 45% of Latino adults view the impact of unauthorized immigration on Latinos already living in the US as positive; in 2010, the number had been 29% (Lopez & Gonzalez-Barrera, 2013). This view has improved more among foreign-born Latinos than native-born Latinos. In the 2013 report, 53% of Latino immigrants viewed the impact of unauthorized immigrants as positive, whereas only 35% of native-born Latinos did.

Arguments for Undocumented Labor. Undocumented workers and their supporters argue that it is both economically and morally unjust to ask undocumented workers either to leave the United States or not to come at all. Moreover, they argue, it is impractical to deport as many as 20 million illegal immigrants back to their home countries. Their argument is that it is not only immoral to deport hard-working individuals who contribute to the US economy, doing the types of jobs few native-born Americans care to do, but it is also impractical (Sowell, 2006, p. 8).

Undocumented workers in the United States have also reported that they have faced a rising tide of discrimination as a result of what they perceive to be growing anti-immigrant sentiment, particularly after the events of September 11, 2001, and various government raids of businesses employing undocumented workers. A 2006 survey of Latinos conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center found that "more than half (54%) of Latinos surveyed believe the [immigration] debate has increased discrimination" (Suro & Escobar, 2006). According to a 2007 poll conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center, "Just over half of all Hispanic adults in the U.S. worry that they, a family member, or a close friend could be deported" (Clark et al., 2007). Some undocumented workers compare their struggle for acceptance to that of African Americans during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s.

A 2017 survey conducted by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health asked Latinos respondents a series of questions about the personal and institutional discrimination they faced for being Latino. Thirty-three percent of Latino respondents reported being discriminated against for their ethnicity when applying for jobs; 32 percent reported such discrimination when receiving equal pay or being considered for promotions; and 31 percent reported discrimination while finding rental housing or buying property (Discrimination in America, 2017).

Arguments against Undocumented Labor. Some opponents of illegal immigration support additional restrictions on legal immigration, though only racist elements, thoroughly repudiated by opponents of undocumented workers, argue that all immigration should be stopped.

Marshall provides a concise summary of arguments against illegal immigration, including the use of undocumented workers:

Unauthorized immigration, on the other hand, subjects migrants to grave dangers and exploitation, suppresses domestic workers' wages and working conditions, makes it difficult to adjust immigration to labor market needs, perpetuates marginal low-wage industries addicted to a steady flow of unauthorized immigrants, is unfair to people waiting to enter the United States legally, and undermines the rule of law. The issue is not immigrants, but their legal status, characteristics, and integration into American life. (Marshall, 2007, p. 2)

Opponents of undocumented workers point to scholarship indicating that the presence of undocumented workers does indeed drive down the wages of documented workers (Hotchkiss & Quispe-Agnoli, 2008). Some others note that any amnesty or path to citizenship for undocumented workers and illegal immigrants as a whole would be tantamount to a reward for breaking the law. They also argue that the same methods—such as identification cards—that could be used to root out undocumented workers could also be used to identify potential terrorists and terrorist cells on US soil.

Terms & Concepts

Amnesty: A blanket legal recognition that a person or group of persons is permitted to reside within a nation's borders without fear of deportation to their home country.

Asylum: The granting of an individual or group of individuals who have fled their home country because of violence or persecution the right to remain within another country permanently, rather than return to their home country.

Citizen: An individual born in a given country or who emigrates to another country and formally pledges his or her allegiance to another country and its laws and customs.

Day Laborer: An individual who secures employment on a daily, ad hoc basis, often as a manual laborer.

Deportation: The legal process by which an individual not authorized to live in one country is forcibly removed from that country and returned to his or her country of birth.

Guest Worker Program: A program by which undocumented workers and others are allowed to work for a given period of time in another country, on the condition that they will either leave when the program period ends or seek formal citizenship.

Illegal Immigrant: An individual, either an adult or a child, who is not legally authorized to enter or remain in a country that is not the individual's country of origin.

Migrant Worker: A legal or illegal laborer, often in agribusiness and the trades, that travels within a country seeking short-term or seasonal work.

Undocumented Workers: Adults who are part of a nation's workforce, but who lack the proper paperwork and recognition by the local, state, and federal governments of their adopted country.

Visa: A legal document allowing an individual to live and work in a host country for a certain predetermined period of time.

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"A Nation of Immigrants." (2013, January 29). Pew Research Hispanic Trends Project. Retrieved November 12, 2013 from http://www.pewhispanic.org/2013/01/29/a-nation-of-immigrants/

National Immigration Law Center (2013). Summary and analysis: the Senate bill (S.744). Retrieved October 9, 2014 from http://www.nilc.org/s744summary1.html

Passel, J. S. (2005a). Estimates of the size and characteristics of the undocumented population. Washington, D.C.: Pew Hispanic Center. Retrieved May 10, 2008 from: http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=44

Passel, J. S. (2005b). Unauthorized migrants: Numbers and characteristics: Background briefing prepared for the Task Force on Immigration and America's Future. Washington, D.C.: Pew Hispanic Center. Retrieved May 10, 2008 from: http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/46.pdf

Passel, J. S., & Cohn, D. (2009, April 14). A portrait of unauthorized immigrants in the United States. Pew Research Hispanic Trends Project. Retrieved November 12, 2013 from http://www.pewhispanic.org/2009/04/14/a-portrait-of-unauthorized-immigrants-in-the-united-states/

Passel, J. S., & Cohn, D. (2012, December 6). Unauthorized immigrants: 11.1 million in 2011. Pew Research Hispanic Trends Project. Retrieved November 12, 2013 from http://www.pewhispanic.org/2012/12/06/unauthorized-immigrants-11-1-million-in-2011/

Passel, J. S., Cohn, D., & Gonzalez-Barrera, A. (2013, September 23). Population decline of unauthorized immigrants stalls, may have reversed. Pew Research Hispanic Trends Project. Retrieved November 12, 2013 from http://www.pewhispanic.org/2013/09/23/population-decline-of-unauthorized-immigrants-stalls-may-have-reversed/

Passel, J. S. & Cohn, D. (2017, April 25). As Mexican share decline, U.S. unauthorized immigrant population fell in 2015 below recession level. Retrieved March 9, 2018, from Pew Research Center. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/04/25/as-mexican-share-declined-u-s-unauthorized-immigrant-population-fell-in-2015-below-recession-level/

Perry, P. (2008). Hiring immigrants. BEEF, 44 , 74-76. Retrieved May 10, 2008, from EBSCO online database, Business Source Premier http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=29363284&site=ehost-live

Preston, J. (2008, May 1). Fewer Latino immigrants sending money home. New York Times. Retrieved May 10, 2008 from: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/01/us/01immigration.html.

Query, J. (2006). Workers' compensation for undocumented workers: A discussion of the regulatory complexities. Journal of Insurance Regulation, 25 , 3-19. Retrieved May 10, 2008, from EBSCO online database, Business Source Premier http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=24159953&site=ehost-live.

Reuters. Number of illegal immigrants in US is stable: DHS. (2012, March 24). Reuters. Retrieved November 12, 2013 from http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/24/us-usa-immigration-idUSBRE82N09I20120324

Seo, M. J. (2011). Uncertainty of access: U.S. citizen children of undocumented immigrant parents and in-state tuition for higher education. Columbia Journal of Law & Social Problems, 44 , 311-352. Retrieved November 12, 2013 from EBSCO Online Database SocINDEX with Full Text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=62007942&site=ehost-live

Sowell, T. (2006). Call them gate crashers. (Cover story). Human Events, 62 . 1-8. Retrieved May 10, 2008, from EBSCO online database, Academic Search Premier http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=20473396&site=ehost-live.

SUNG, H., DELGADO, S., PEÑA, D., & PALADINO, A. (2016). Surveillance without protection: Policing undocunmented migrant workers in an American suburb. British Journal of Criminology, 56(5), 877–897. doi:10.1093/bjc/azv086. Retrieved March 9, 2018, from EBSCO Online Database Sociology Source Ultimate. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sxi&AN=117271598&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Suro, R. & Escobar, G. (2006). 2006 National Survey of Latinos: The immigration debate. Pew Hispanic Center. Retrieved May 10, 2008 from: http://www.pewhispanic.org/files/reports/68.pdf

Tienda, M. & Singer, A. (1995). Wage mobility of undocumented workers in the United States. International Migration Review, 29 . 112-138.

United States Congress (2013–2014). S.744: Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act. Retrieved October 9, 2014 from https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/senate-bill/744

United States Department of Homeland Security (2013). Estimates of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population Residing in the United States: January 2012. Retrieved October 9, 2014 from http://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/ois5%Fill5%Fpe5%F20125%F2.pdf

Van Der leun, J., & Kloosterman, R. (2006). Going underground: Immigration policy changes and shifts in modes of provision of undocumented immigrants in the Netherlands. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie (Journal of Economic & Social Geography), 97 , 59-68. Retrieved May 10, 2008, from EBSCO online database, Academic Search Premier http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=19714375&site=ehost-live.

Williams, W. (2006). Model enforcement of wage and hour laws for undocumented workers: One step closer to equal protection under the law. Columbia Human Rights Law Review, 37 , 755-786. Retrieved May 10, 2008, from EBSCO online database SocINDEX with Full Text http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=20612965&site=ehost-live.

Yamamoto, S. (2006). Legitimating informal economy: The role of intermediary in the case of Latino day laborers. Conference Papers -- American Sociological Association, 2006 Annual Meeting, Montreal. Retrieved May 10, 2008, from EBSCO online database SocINDEX with Full Text http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=26642684&site=ehost-live

Suggested Reading

Abrego, L. J. (2011). Legal consciousness of undocumented Latinos: Fear and stigma as barriers to claims-making for first- and 1.5-generation immigrants. Law & Society Review, 45 , 337-370. Retrieved November 12, 2013 from EBSCO Online Database SocINDEX with Full Text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=60806981&site=ehost-live

Bano, B. (2006). Ten ways to protect undocumented migrant workers. International Journal of Migration, Health & Social Care, 2 , 66. Retrieved May 10, 2008, from EBSCO online database SocINDEX with Full Text http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=21294061&site=ehost-live

Friedmann, J. (1986) The world city hypothesis. Development and Change 17 : 69-84.

Gilbert, E. (2007). Leaky borders and solid citizens: Governing security, prosperity and quality of life in a North American partnership. Antipode, 39 , 77-98. Retrieved May 10, 2008, from EBSCO online database Academic Search Premier http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=23849803&site=ehost-live.

Gleeson, S. (2014). Means to an end: an assessment of the status-blind approach to protecting undocumented worker rights. Sociological Perspectives, 57, 301–320. Retrieved October 9, 2013 from Academic Search Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=98368040

Goldfarb, H. (2005). The undocumented worker: Fuller, Holmes, and the Bush proposal within immigration and labor law jurisprudence. University of Florida Journal of Law & Public Policy, 16 , 179-201. Retrieved May 10, 2008, from EBSCO online database Academic Search Complete http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=16648805&site=ehost-live.

Hamilton, E., Hale, J., Hamilton, E. R., & Hale, J. M. (2016). Changes in the transnational family structures of Mexican farm workers in the era of border militarization. Demography, 53(5), 1429–1451. doi:10.1007/s13524-016-0505-7. Retrieved March 9, 2018, from EBSCO Online Database Sociology Source Ultimate. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sxi&AN=118507995&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Kaushal, N. (2006). Amnesty programs and the labor market outcomes of undocumented workers. Journal of Human Resources, 41 . 631-647. Retrieved May 10, 2008, from EBSCO online database Business Source Premier http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=22124116&site=ehost-live

Lee, S. J. (2006). Why immigration reform requires a comprehensive approach that includes both legalization programs and provisions to secure the border. Harvard Journal on Legislation, 43 , 267-286. Retrieved May 10, 2008, from EBSCO online database SocINDEX with Full Text http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=21560399&site=ehost-live.

McFadyen, D. (2007). The migrants will be heard: A 40th anniversary conversation with Rubén Martínez. NACLA Report on the Americas, 40 , 5-10. Retrieved May 10, 2008, from EBSCO online database Academic Search Premier http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=24225594&site=ehost-live.

Reyes, R. (2007, December 28). Time to dispel those immigrant myths. USA Today. P. 9A. Retrieved May 10, 2008, from EBSCO online database Academic Search Premier http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=J0E234209109307&site=ehost-live

Thornburgh, N. (2006). Inside the life of the migrants next door. Time, 167 , 34-45. Retrieved May 10, 2008, from EBSCO online database Academic Search Premier http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=19551272&site=ehost-live.