In 2005, Robert Justich, then a portfolio manager for Bear Stearns, co-authored a report suggesting the population of illegal immigrants “may be as high as 20 million people.” Jeffrey Passel, senior demographer for the Pew Hispanic Center, disputed that finding. For one thing, other data sources, such as U.S. birth rates and Mexico’s own census, don’t corroborate such a large number. If there were really so many more immigrants, than there would be more women of child-bearing age, and more births. And if instead the missing millions are mostly Mexican men working in the U.S. and sending money home, the flip side of that influx would be reflected as a gap in the Mexican census numbers.
“Definitely the number is not as high as 20 million,” said Manuel Orozco, senior associate of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington, D.C., policy-analysis group.
Justich, who now owns a music and film production firm, countered that immigrants from countries other than Mexico may make up the rest.
However, he added that the number is no longer as high as 20 million.
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