FAIR

Iowa has a fast growing illegal alien population of at least 55,000 persons, and the fiscal burden on Iowans resulting from services provided to that population are similarly growing rapidly. Comparing this number with the federal government estimate of 24,000 illegal immigrants in 2000 suggests that the illegal resident alien population has grown by roughly 31,000 persons — an increase of 130 percent — over the past seven years. A comparison of the entire foreign-born population residing in Iowa in the 2000 Census — including legal and illegal immigrants and some long-term nonimmigrants, such as foreign students — with the estimated size of that foreign-born population in 2006 also shows an increase of about 31,000 people. This suggests that virtually all of the increase in the foreign-born population in Iowa since 2000 has been by illegal residents.

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