I don't know the precise number, but the current numbers, according to the Center for Immigration Studied, is about 11.3M.
http://www.cis.org/CurrentNumbers
This group is not much of an apologist for immigration, legal or illegal, as it promotes a temporary total shutdown on immigration while we get our house in order.
Those tossing around 30M to 40M numbers really ought to present something like proof. Nobody can come up with accurate numbers based on their own personal experience or on anecdotal evidence.
Y'all are aware the total population of Mexico is only a little over 100M, I hope. While a great many of them are up here, it isn't 20% or more. For this to be the case, it would have to be well over 50% among the group, young men, that predominates in illegals.
There are actual statistics on these numbers. One of the most important is the number of wire transfers of money back to Mexico and Central America. Those numbers don't support a 20M to 40M total.
Not all “illegals” are from Mexico.
Factor in South America,Canada, Europe, Asia, Africa,Australia,etc.
Add in the Island nations, all of them.
Can you even open your eyes to the scope of the problem?
Or do you really buy into the “hype” that all of us who have been screaming for years against illegal immigrants are racists who hate (pick your color and religion/insert here)?
How do you “prove” numbers of people hiding in your country, having come illegally, and likely roaming when needed?
It would appear that the numbers are far beyond 11 million if an official number of 5 million is given by HUD for records they have in house.
"Technology writer Robert X. Cringely has a column on the use of credit reporting data to get a fix on the number of illegal aliens in the U.S.:
While politicians and the U.S. Census Bureau may disagree on how many illegal aliens are living in the United States, the big credit reporting agencies have a pretty solid handle on the number and it is 17 million. That's 17 million adults of unproved nationality who have ongoing financial relationships with businesses or - believe it or not - governments.
It's likely that there is some duplication in this total number, that is an illegal alien who is counted twice because he has, for example, a different relationship with his electric utility than he does with his phone company. But since the 17 million figure doesn't include children, the two are likely to wash out and 17 million is probably pretty darned close to the real number."
sw