Personally I think it's way larger than is reported.
What say you?
Personally, I find no particular reason to disagree with the Center for Immigration Studies, an anti-immigration (legal and illegal) group, which thinks the number is somewhere between 11.1M and 11.5M, with their best guess as 11.3M.
They believe there is evidence that the number has actually dropped somewhat in the last year or so, as more people have returned to their home countries than have entered the country.
I am perfectly well aware that making an accurate count is not possible. Why so many others think this means the official number must be undercounted by 100% to 300% is quite beyond me.
Frankly, this sort of “thinking” reminds me of the hysteria about missing children back in the 80s(?). We were told repeatedly by the media that 20,000 children disappeared every year, with the implication that 20,000 were abducted by strangers for purposes of sexual deviancy and in all likelihood murdered.
When the dust finally settled on the discussion, it was found that almost all of the “20,000” were teenage runaways or children involved in custody disputes. The actual number of young children abducted by strangers for sexual purposes is more likely in the range of 20 to 50 per year. Far too many, of course, but a huge difference from 20,000.