Free Republic

Washington, DC, Jun. 14 (UPI) -- The number of illegal migrants arriving in the United States has exceeded the number of new legal immigrants, a Pew Hispanic Center report finds. In recent years some 700,000 unauthorized migrants have arrived annually, compared with about 610,000 legal immigrants. "Unauthorized Migrants: Numbers and Characteristics" was prepared by Jeffrey Passel, a veteran demographer and senior research associate at the center. The report estimates the number of people living in families in which the head of the household or the spouse is an illegal alien at 13.9 million as of March 2004, including 4.7 million...

<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) - Ask Odalia Ramirez if she speaks English and the Guatemala-born housewife will tell you "un poquito," or a little bit. But that doesn't limit Ramirez, 40, from getting by in Pico-Union, a predominantly Central American neighborhood where you can eat steamed corn "pupusas" stuffed with meat and cheese, put a down payment on a dream retirement home in El Salvador while doing your grocery shopping and have your taxes prepared by a Spanish-speaking accountant.</p>