Report says 11.6 million illegals in U.S.

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The Department of Homeland Security says 11.6 million illegal aliens lived in the United States as of January 2006 — 1.1 million more than the estimate for January 2005.

In a report released yesterday, DHS also said Mexico accounted for about 6.6 million of the total illegal aliens, and accounted for three-fifths of the annual increase in illegal aliens in the past six years.

The estimates are the latest official government attempt to calculate the illegal population, derived from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2005 American Community Survey and calculations about the number of illegal aliens as part of the foreign-born population.

Officials said the jump of 1.1 million doesn't necessarily mean that many new illegal aliens came to stay in 2005, but reflects better numbers and suggests the January 2005 estimate of 10.5 million was too low.

The government estimates that in 2000 there were 8.5 million illegal aliens, suggesting an annual net increase of about 500,000 per year since then.

Russ Knocke, a spokesman for DHS, said the numbers back up the administration's recent enforcement efforts.

"This estimate is consistent with what we have been saying for months. It is why you are seeing such a dramatic increase in Border Patrol, more fencing and vehicular barriers, more bed space, and advanced technologies being deployed at our borders," Mr. Knocke said.

"It also reinforces the fact that there is a tremendous economic pull and we need comprehensive reform to ease athat pressure," he said.

Jeffrey S. Passell, a demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center whose own research tracks DHS' findings, said the numbers provide more evidence to counter higher estimates, such as Bear Stearns' 2005 calculation that the illegal alien population could be 20 million.

"If you think there's 20 million, why?" Mr. Passell said, adding that the DHS numbers are the latest to put the illegal alien population at the lower end of the usual given range of estimates.

"These numbers are coming out very similar to what I have, and they're based on data, they're based on what I think is pretty good data, and it's an empirically based estimate to come up with a number," he said.

Mr. Passell said the DHS numbers also give insight into where illegal aliens are settling, with Georgia's population more than doubling since 2000. The numbers also show the sources of the current illegal population; Mexicans account for 315,000 of the 500,000 increase in illegal aliens each year.

While Mexico continues to dominate, India and Brazil showed the largest percentage increases, with the number of illegal aliens from those countries doubling between 2000 and 2006.