Almost half of the undocumented population in Arizona is eligible for some form of relief under executive action on immigration, new data by the Migration Policy Institute show.
The information released Thursday by the Washington-based nonpartisan think tank also offers a clearer picture of the unauthorized immigrant population in Arizona’s two largest counties.
Pima County is home to 31,000 undocumented immigrants, while Maricopa has 187,000, together accounting for roughly 80 percent of the state’s estimated 274,000 unauthorized residents.
Maricopa County has the seventh-largest population of undocumented immigrants in the country, Pima County ranks 68th.
This is the first county-level analysis of the undocumented population in the United States, said Randy Capps, director of research for U.S. programs at the institute, during a teleconference.
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“Until the American Community Survey was conducted, we didn’t have sufficient data to do something like this except every 10 years,” Capps said. “So the figures quickly become out dated.”
Fully implemented in 2005, the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey is sent to 3 million households per year and provides more up-to-date information.
The county data presented is an average from 2008 through 2012. The numbers for Arizona are much lower than the half million illegal border crossers believed to have lived in the state more than a decade ago.
Even so, Arizona is still in the top 10 states with the highest undocumented population, but far below list-toppers California and Texas, which have 3.1 million and 1.4 million unauthorized immigrants, respectively.
Although challenged by many advocacy groups as not enough and already the target of legislation by House Republicans, President Obama’s executive action on immigration will have a definitive impact on the estimated 11.4 million immigrants in the country illegally.
In most states, almost 50 percent of the unauthorized population is eligible to benefit from either Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or through being a parent of a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, both programs protect beneficiaries from deportation and allows them to apply for a renewable work permit.
While being eligible means someone fulfills the basic requirements for the program, other criteria, including a criminal background check, may disqualify an applicant. The data presented Thursday do not take into account such factors.
Since the DACA program launched in 2012, almost 60 percent of eligible young people in Western states, including Arizona, have applied, according to the Migration Policy Institute. In Tucson, hundreds have attended information forums to learn about the expansion of DACA and the upcoming Deferred Action for Parental Accountability.
For the government and groups looking to help immigrants take advantage of executive action, the information being provided is vital as a way to target resources to where they’re needed most, said Charles Kamasaki, a senior cabinet adviser for the National Council of La Raza.
“Having this data so early in the process is really an invaluable contribution for those of us trying to plan for implementation,” he said.
