Decline in Caribbean Green Card Holders
According to new reports, the number of people who are obtaining legal permanent residents or green cards, in the United States from Latin America and from the Caribbean countries has slowed slightly from the numbers in 2009. The data establishing that is from the Department of Homeland Security. It was then analyzed and reported by News Americas. According to the actual numbers, over 300,000 migrants from the Caribbean and from Latin America became citizens in the United States in the year. However, in 2009, that number was 400,000. These are people who entered the country or became legal permanent residents.

Breakdown the Numbers
Of the numbers reported, the majority of people from this region who received green cards were from Mexico. A total of 139,120 people obtained legal permanent residence from Mexico. Another 87,000 were from South America. Of all of those who came from South America, the country with the largest number was from Colombia, were some 22,406 people entered the country. In the Caribbean nations, the largest number of people to enter and obtain green cards in the United States from the region was from the Dominican Republic. That country had 53,870 people obtain green cards. Cuba was the second largest with 33,573. Haiti was third with 22,528 and Jamaica came in fourth with 19,825 people.

More Details Reported
When looking at the overall numbers of people who were given legal permanent residence in the United states in 2010, the decrease was about 7.8 percent. That is from the previous year's numbers. In 2009, there were 1,130,818 people who obtained green cards. In 2010, there were 1,042,625 who obtained green cards. In addition, the legal residence residency adjustments of status also decreased. These numbers which show people who obtained legal permanent residency after being in the country, moved from 667,776 in 2009 to just 566,576 in 2010. To break this down even further by the numbers, this amounts to 54 percent of people with green cards were adjustments of status in 2010. Comparatively, about 46 percent were new arrivals to the country.

Where People Come From And Go
By country of birth, about 13 percent of all obtaining green cards in 2010 were from Mexico. 6.8 percent were from China and 6.6 percent where from India. The Philippines accounted for 5.6 percent and the Dominican Republic accounted for 5.2 percent. Once people are in the country, information about where they go to was also provided in this information from the Department of Homeland Security. According to the report, 20 percent of those who obtained green card status in 2010 live in California and about 14.2 percent live in New York. Florida accounted for 10.3 percent, Texas for 8.4 percent and New Jersey accounted for 5.5 percent. The majority of people obtained green cars through family sponsored immigrants, for a total of 66 percent. About 21 percent were admitted under the family sponsored preference. Immigrants who received employment based green cards also accounted for a significant percentage at 14 percent of those who came into the country in 2010.