Our Common Republic?

In the last decade, the United States has admitted nearly eleven million legal immigrants, equating to roughly the combined population of Iowa, Oklahoma, and Oregon. An additional twelve million illegal immigrants—roughly the size of the population of Illinois—entered the country over that same time span. Immigrants account for nearly 14 percent of Americans, which is nearly triple the share fifty years ago. According to Pew research from 2009, adult unauthorized immigrants are disproportionately likely to be poorly educated, and when compared to legal immigrants, undocumented immigrants do not attain markedly higher incomes the longer they reside in the United States.