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Immigration

Only 8 percent of immigrants who are granted visas to the United States are admitted based on their professional skills, compared to 25 percent in Canada and 40 percent in Australia.

Source
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (September 2015). International Migration Outlook 2015. Country Notes: Recent Changes in Migration Movements and Policies.

Nearly 233,000 applications for the H-1B skilled-worker visa — approximately 2.7 times the statutory limit (85,000 per year) — were received by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services within the first five business days of the 2015 filing period. 

Source
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. (April 2015). “USCIS Completes the H-1B Cap Random Selection Process from FY 2016.” Note: The H-1B cap includes a statutory cap of 65,000 visas plus an advanced degree exemption of 20,000 visas.

It is estimated that approximately 700,000 American jobs will have been created by 2020 by high-skilled foreign workers who were awarded H-1B visas between 2010 and 2013.

Source
Partnership for a New American Economy. (2015). “The H-1B Employment Effect.”

More than 40 percent of U.S.-based Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children.

Source
Fairlie, Robert. (August 2012). “Open for Business: How Immigrants are Driving Small Business Creation in the United States,” Partnership for a New American Economy

The number of unauthorized immigrants living in the United States declined from an all-time high of 12.2 million individuals in 2007 to an estimated 11.3 million individuals in 2014.

Source
Pew Research Center. (July 2015). “U.S. Unauthorized Immigrant Population Levels Off.” Pew Research Center estimates are based on residual methodology applied to the March supplements of the Current Population Survey (1995–2004, 2013–14) and American Community Survey (2005–12).

Unauthorized immigrants accounted for an estimated 26.0 percent of all immigrants, 5.1 percent of the U.S. workforce and 3.5 percent of the U.S. population in 2012.

Source
Pew Research Center. (March 2015). “Share of Unauthorized Immigrant Workers in Production, Construction Jobs Falls since 2007,” Table A5.

The labor force participation rate for unauthorized immigrants was 72.3 percent in 2012 — significantly higher than the 63.7 percent rate for the U.S. population as a whole.

Source
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey; Passel, Jeffrey S. and D’Vera Cohn. (November 2014). “Unauthorized Immigrant Totals Rise in 7 States, Fall in 14: Decline in Those from Mexico Fuels Most State Decreases,” Tables A1 and A2, Pew Research Center’s Hispanic Trends Project. Also see Bruno, Andorra. (May 2014). “Unauthorized Aliens in the United States: Policy Discussion,” Congressional Research Service.

Assets securing the United States’ 1,933-mile southwestern border have increased from 8,619 Border Patrol agents, 56 aircraft, 140 mobile and remote video surveillance systems, 77 miles of fencing, and no underground sensors in 2000 to 18,127 Border Patrol agents, 107 aircraft, 451 mobile and remote video surveillance systems, 700 miles of fencing, and 11,863 underground sensors in 2014. 

Source
U.S. Department of Homeland Security. (October 2014). “Remarks by Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson: ‘Border Security in the 21st Century’ — As Delivered”; Beaver, Janice. (November 2006). “U.S. International Borders: Brief Facts.” Congressional Research Service.

The number of individuals apprehended crossing the United States’ southwestern border illegally — a proxy measure for the number of illegal entries — declined by 71 percent between 2000 and 2014, from 1.6 million (an all-time high) to slightly more than 479,000 individuals. 

Source
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. (2015). “U.S. Border Patrol Fiscal Year Southwest Border Sector Apprehensions (FY1960–FY2014).”

69,933 refugees were resettled in the United States in FY 2015, 12 percent below the long-run historical average (1975–2014). 

Source
U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, Office of Admissions — Refugee Processing Center. “Summary of Refugee Admissions as of September 30, 2015.” (Last accessed 10/28/15)

35 percent of refugees taken in by the United States were from South Asia and the Middle East in FY 2015. Approximately one-third were from Africa, and roughly one-quarter were from East Asia.

Source
U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, Office of Admissions — Refugee Processing Center. “Summary of Refugee Admissions as of September 30, 2015.” (Last accessed 10/28/15)

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