Statistics
68% of evangelical Christians say that they would support immigration reforms that would both increase border security and establish a process so that immigrants present unlawfully in the U.S. could earn permanent legal status and eventually citizenship if they paid a fine and met other qualifications.
LifeWay Research, February 2015
Just 1 in 5 evangelical Christians says that they have ever been encouraged by their local church to reach out to immigrants in their community.
LifeWay Research, February 2015
Only about half of evangelical Christians (53%) say that they are very familiar with what the Bible says about how to treat immigrants.
LifeWay Research, February 2015
The Hebrew word for an immigrant, ger, appears 92 times just in the Old Testament.
Roughly 45 million immigrants reside in the United States, representing 13.7% of the U.S. population. That’s a much higher share than in 1970, when less than 5% of the U.S. population was foreign-born, but still lower than in 1890, when 14.8% of the U.S. population was foreign-born, and at other points in our nation’s history.
An estimated 10.5 million immigrants residing in the United States are present unlawfully, a number that has declined in recent years, driven largely by a drop in unlawful immigration from Mexico.
In 2018, the top country of origin of new immigrants arriving in the U.S. was China, followed by India, Mexico and the Philippines.
Nearly half of all immigrants in the U.S. live in just three states: California, Texas and Florida.
Unauthorized immigrants contributed an estimated $11.7 billion in state and local taxes annually, including $7 billion in sales & excise taxes, $3.6 billion in property taxes and $1.1 billion in income taxes, not including any federal taxes paid.
Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy, 2017 ; find state-specific data here.
The loss of all undocumented workers in the U.S. would cost the U.S economy $5 trillion over a decade.
Exit polls from the 2020 presidential elections found that more than 7 in 10 Americans believe that immigrants living in the United States illegally should be offered the chance to apply for legal status.
20% of all Fortune 500 companies in the U.S. were founded by an immigrant, and 44% were founded by an immigrant or the child of an immigrant.
Refugees undergo the most thorough vetting of any category of visitor or immigrant who enters the United States.
Since the Refugee Act was passed in 1980, more than 3 million refugees have been resettled to the U.S., but not a single one has taken an American life in a terrorist attack.
The plurality of refugees resettled to the U.S. in the past decade have been Christians, including many who were persecuted on account of their faith.
The number of Christian refugees from the 50 countries on the Open Doors World Watch List for countries where Christians face persecution declined by roughly 90% between 2015 to 2020.
Twenty years after arrival, the average refugee adult has contributed approximately $21,000 more in taxes than the combined cost of governmental expenditures on their behalf.
Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities, 2017
Immigrants, whether lawfully present or not, commit crimes at lower rates than native-born U.S. citizens.
44 out of 46 economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal said they believe that the net economic impact of illegal immigration is positive for the United States.
86% of the immigrant population in North America are likely to either be Christians or become Christians, which is far above the national average.
Dr. Tim Tennent, Asbury Theological Seminary, 2011
60% of people from non-Christian religious traditions in North America – many of whom are immigrants or their children – say they do not personally know a Christian.
