An estimate by the Pew Hispanic Center finds almost 1.4 million illegal Latinos in the United States could benefit from President Obama’s changes in deportation policies. Half of them are students.
Up to 1.4 million children and young adults who are in the United States illegally could potentially benefit from the announcement by the Obama Administration about changes in deportation policies, according to an estimate from the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center.
The 1.4 million estimate, according to the report, includes 700,000 unauthorized immigrants who are ages 18 to 30 but arrived in the U.S as children and are currently enrolled in school or have graduated from high school; and an additional 700,000 who are under the age of 18 and are enrolled in school. This includes 150,000 who are currently enrolled in high school.
Overall, the 1.4 million estimate represents about 12% of the 11.2 million unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. as of 2010, according to an estimate by the Pew Hispanic Center. Among the 1.4 million potential beneficiaries of the new policy, some 70% are from Mexico.
A Pew Hispanic Center survey taken late last year found that by a margin of 59% to 27%, Latinos oppose the deportation policies of the Obama Administration. Among Latinos, some 41% are aware that the number of deportations of unauthorized immigrants annually has been higher during the Obama Administration than during the George W. Bush Administration, while 36% say the two Administrations have deported the same number of unauthorized immigrants, and 10% say fewer have been deported under the Obama administration.
