My own off-the-cuff guess at the number of illegals who are living in the country now, including all the amnestied ones (whom I still count as illegals, because amnesty and parole don't expunge the original offense), was about 30,000,000. I see by the graphic that the Census Bureau thinks that, with their progeny, they number some 45,000,000. Guess I'm close enough for government work.
Changes in population makeup like this are the stuff that revolutions and civil wars are made of.
And FWIW, even the more business-oriented, work-oriented Mexicans we get in Texas from northern Mexico (nortenos) vote 70% for Democratic candidates when they vote -- a solid enough vote to qualify them for yellow-dog status. South Americans and Central Americans split more evenly, and Cubans still tilt Republican. But Chicanos are bad news.
And Bush keeps bending over backwards to get more Mexicans into the country. I don't get it, unless this is the business lobby's famous propensity in action, for trading away their future for a few good quarters in the near years.
Whether its 15 million, 30 million or 45 million illegals, that's far too many. Bush`s immigration reform policy didn't go over very well with the American people, who still oppose amnesty for illegal aliens in overwhelming numbers.