Scores of immigrants who recently became legal U.S. residents initially lived in the United States illegally, according to a new report by the Public Policy Institute of California.
The report found that most immigrants had lived in the U.S. for significant periods of time before obtaining their green cards.
"Immigrants are characterized as either legal or illegal," said Laura Hill, a research fellow at PPIC who co-authored the report. "But it's more complicated. It's very common for immigrants to move from illegal to legal status. It's also common for them to move from legal to illegal if they overstay a visa."
More than half – 52 percent – of California immigrants who became legal residents in 2003 had lived in the country illegally, the report found, while, throughout the United States, 42 percent had previously lived illegally.
Among California immigrants, 35 percent crossed the border while 18 percent overstayed their visas or worked without authorization. In the United States, 20 percent crossed illegally and 22 percent overstayed visas.
The pathways that immigrants took toward legal permanent residency varied by nationally, the PPIC report added. Among Asian immigrants, for example, 53 percent had recently arrived in the United States. Caribbean and Latin American immigrants, though, were more likely to cross the border illegally. Immigrants more likely to violate visa conditions came from the Mideast/North Africa (31 percent) or Europe and Central Asia (27 percent).
Immigrants who crossed the border illegally, the report concluded, were more likely to be less educated and less proficient in English, but they were also more likely to be currently employed.
