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Immigration to Colorado
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 COLORADO IMMIGRATION STATISTICS |
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Total Population: |
4,750,000 (2006) |
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Foreign Born: |
460,000 (2005) |
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Illegal Immigrants: |
FAIR Estimate: 263,000 (2005) |
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USCIS/DHS Estimate: 145,000 (2000) |
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Pew Hispanic Center Estimate: 250,000 (2005) |
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About Colorado
Colorado has experienced a growth of 31 percent between 1990-2000 and is now home to 4.3 million people. As the country’s third fastest growing state in the United States, immigrants in Colorado in 1990 accounted for approximately 25 percent of the states added growth. In the year 2000 estimation shows that Colorado’s people per square mile accounted for 41, a 28 percent increase. As the first city ever to turn down the Olympics in the 1970s, Colorado has long showed concern about the increasing population growth impacting the quality of life. The trend continues and 72 percent of Colorado voters see the continuing population growth as a major threat to the quality of life.
Illegal Immigration to Colorado
With a rise of 122 percent, INS projects that 144,000 illegal immigrants resided in Colorado as of 2000. With the tenth largest illegal alien population in the United States, Colorado continues to draw in illegal immigrants to the state. With 9,747 arrests in Colorado, the cost of illegal immigration is being footed by Coloradoans, increasing the burden on the state and the taxpayers. In the year 1999 Colorado requested compensation of $24 million from the federal government (under the federal State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, or SCAAP) towards the incarceration of illegal immigrants. Colorado taxpayers had to shelf out the additional $14.8 million as the federal government only paid $9.2 million in compensation.
Problems Caused by Population Increase
In the 1990’s, Colorado’s foreign-born population increased with 160 percent. Between 1990-2000 Colorado experienced a growth of immigrants amounting to 227,000, bringing the states foreign-born residents to 370,000. It is projected that Colorado’s population will grow by 24% percent between 2000-2025, amounting to 5.2 million. In the year 1990, 47 percent of immigrants in Colorado became naturalized, a number that has since continued to decrease amounting to 32 percent in 2000. With population increases follows disappearing open space and crowded housing, increasing commute and air pollution. With more people moving to Colorado, many families feel that the open space they moved there for is disappearing. Losing 22,500 acres of farmland and open space due to development, Colorado’s growing housing development is the second largest in the nation. With increasing amount of people in the state, Colorado’s traffic and commute has increased with 17 percent between 1990-2000. It is estimated that Colorado’s commuters are losing approximately 35 hours per year and wasted fuels and delays amounting to $1,235, all showing up as “hidden tax.” In addition, to prevent congestion, an additional 2,300 lane-miles are needed, but only half of this is estimated to be constructed.
Colorado’s enrollment in elementary and high school is expected to pass one million students by 2025. With an increase in students attending school, an additional 5,000 teachers are needed to maintain its current student-teacher ratio. With increasing amount of students comes an increasing need for the building of new schools. It is estimated that at least 20 new schools per year are needed. Construction is estimated to approximately $175 million. The cost for Colorado in educating immigrant children from Mexico is at least $50 million per year. In addition, Colorado’s taxpayers are footing the bill for hundreds of illegal immigrants that receive reduced in-state tuition rates of $5,300.
Colorado is facing increasing problems in meeting the demand of affordable housing. A correlation with the increase in the number of foreign-born often correlates with severely crowded housing. With a 162 percent increase in the number of foreign-born individuals, Colorado is severely crowded. With a minimum wage of $5.15, in order for an individual in Colorado to afford to rent a two-bedroom apartment he/she has to pay a fair market rent of $15.99 and therefore work a total of 124 hours per week. The average price of homes in Colorado’s 15 poorest neighborhoods has increased with 153 percent between 1991-2000. This increase in housing cost is also reflected in that of elderly where more than 50 percent of their income goes to directly towards the housing. As the nation’s fourth worst case of urban sprawl, Metro Denver has received organized neighborhood groups to buy up land, protecting it from development, by pooling private funds.
With the sprawling effect, Colorado’s natural resources are being kept on its limit, naturally leading to added conflicts over its natural resources. Examples include Colorado’s agriculture severely having been damaged by the state’s water conservation being short on water. It is estimated that Colorado may need, within the next 30 years, near 500,000 acre-feet of new water. While 18 percent of immigrants in Colorado have incomes that are below the poverty level, the rate rises to 22 percent for non-citizens. Immigrant households needing some type of welfare benefit in Colorado make up 20 percent of the population. Immigrant resident 21 and over with a high school degree make up 54 percent. Willing to work at substandard working conditions and wages, illegal immigrants depresses the wages of the American workers’. At the end of 2002, the unemployment rate was 5.5 percent, having resulted in a layoff with more than 60,000 workers.
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