Economy Slowed, But Immigration Didn't The Foreign-Born Population, 2000-2004November 2004By Steven A. Camarota Download the .pdf versionThe recent economic slowdown represents a real-world test of the argument that immigration is largely driven by the U.S. economy. Although the economy slowed after 2000, analysis of the latest Census Bureau data shows that immigration remained at record levels. The nation’s immigrant population (legal and illegal) reached a new record of more than 34 million in March of 2004, an increase of 4.3 million just since 2000. The fact that immigration levels have remained so high even though job growth has been...