With so much controversy around the issue of immigrants who are undocumented, it’s easy to overlook the fact that most of the foreign-born people living in the United States followed the rules and have permission to be here. Of the more than 43 million foreign-born people who were living in the United States in 2014, around 44 percent were naturalized U.S. citizens. Those who were not naturalized were either lawful permanent residents, also known as green-card holders (27 percent of all foreign-born people), or immigrants who were unauthorized (some 11 million people, representing 25.5 percent of all foreign-born people). 

There is a rigorous process for obtaining documentation to enter the United States as a resident, including applying for immigrant visas and permanent resident/green-card status. Many students’ immigrant ancestors who arrived between 1790 and 1924 would not have been allowed in under the current policy. Generally, permission to enter and stay in the country as a documented immigrant is limited to people who are highly trained in a skill that is in short supply here and have been offered a job by a U.S. employer, are escaping political persecution, are joining close family already here or are winners of the green-card lottery.

While most first-generation immigrants may speak their first language at home, 35 percent of those age 5 or older speak English “very well” and 21 percent speak it “well,” according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Nearly 730,000 people became naturalized citizens during the 2015 fiscal year. Immigrants must speak, read, write and understand the English language, not only for the naturalization application process, but also so they can pass a 100-question test that has both oral and written components.

The U.S. civilian workforce included 8 million unauthorized immigrants in 2014, which accounts for only 5 percent of the entire workforce. Compared with their small share of the civilian workforce overall, immigrants without authorization are only overrepresented in service, farming and construction occupations (see Table 1). This may be due to the fact that, to fill the void of low-skilled U.S. workers, employers often hire undocumented immigrant workers. One of the consequences of this practice is that it is easier for unscrupulous employers to exploit this labor source, paying immigrants less, refusing to provide benefits and ignoring worker-safety laws. On an economic level, U.S. citizens benefit from relatively low prices on food and other goods produced by undocumented immigrant labor.