Even Illegal Immigrants are Leaving Florida

Last year Florida experienced its first population decrease in decades, now a new report shows that even illegal immigrants are leaving Florida.According to the Department of Homeland Security, Florida was the only state in the nation that saw the number of undocumented immigrants decrease between 2000 and 2009. Florida was...

By Kyle Munzenrieder

February 12, 2010

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Last year Florida experienced its first population decrease in decades, now a new report shows that even illegal immigrants are leaving Florida.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, Florida was the only state in the nation that saw the number of undocumented immigrants decrease between 2000 and 2009. Florida was home to about 80,000 less undocumented immigrants at the end of the decade than it was at the beginning.

Though the dip may have something to do with Florida's troubling economic woes.

"If there is a downturn in the immigrant population in Florida, it underscores the state's fundamental economic problems," demographer William Frey of the Brookings Institution tells UPI.

Florida still has the third highest population of undocumented immigrants, sitting only behind California and Texas.

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