Key facts about illegal immigrants in the United States

Some interesting statistics put together by the Pew Hispanic Center. Many citizens think ALL immigrants, especially Latinos, are here illegally. DP

- Overall numbers of unauthorized immigrants: 11.5 to 12 million, of whom some 7.2 million were employed in March 2005, accounting for about 4.9 percent of the US civilian labor force.

- Unauthorized adult males living in the United States: 5.4 million

- Unauthorized adult females: 3.9 million

- Unauthorized children: 1.8 million

- Six out of 10 undocumented immigrants have been in the United States for 10 years or less.

- Four out of 10 have been in the country five years or less.

- Some 3.1 million children have been born to families in which at least one of their parents was unauthorized.

- Undocumented workers, who are found in a wide range of professions across the United States, are concentrated in a few in particular:
- 24 percent of workers in farming occupations
- 17 percent of workers in cleaning trades
- 14 percent of construction and building trades workers
- 12 percent of workers in food preparation.