The Census Bureau released a statistic on Monday that brings legal immigrants back into the spotlight.
"One new migrant enters the U.S. [legally] every 40 seconds," the Census Bureau wrote on its website.
And according to Forbes, legal immigrants are essential for a thriving country:
"Over the years, America has prospered through legal immigration. My relatives were German and my wife is Italian. Past legal immigrants to the U.S. and their families have helped make this country great," contributor Ed Fuller wrote in a Forbes op-ed.
August 3 marked the 131st anniversary of legislation that banned those immigrating to America who were likely going to be in need of governmental assistance.
Although the topic of immigration is still heavily debated, the Census Bureau points out that America is more accepting of immigrants legally coming into America.
"Immigration laws have been much revised since 1882 and remain a topic of great political contention to this day. But the U.S. has for some time accepted more immigrants than any other nation. Of the roughly 309 million residents counted in the 2010 Census of Population, nearly 40 million were foreign-born and another 40 million were naturalized citizens or noncitizen immigrants," Census officials stated.
