The legal and illegal immigrant population in the United States is on track to reach a record high of 51 million in as little as eight years, according to a new study of Census Bureau data conducted by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS).
Driven mostly by legal immigration, the bureau projected that absent a change in current policy, by 2023, more than one in seven U.S. residents will be an immigrant.
In 2060, when the immigrant population reaches 78 million, more than one in five U.S. residents will be an immigrant, a population that is growing nearly four times faster than the native-born population, according to the CIS. By then, immigrants are expected to account for 82 percent of all population growth in the country.
"These numbers have important implications for workers, schools, infrastructure, congestion and the environment," said Steven Camarota, the center's director of research, the Washington Examiner reported. "They also may have implications for our ability to successfully assimilate and integrate immigrants."
Currently, approximately 12 million illegal immigrants reside in the U.S., and the Department of Homeland Security estimates that an additional 40,000 immigrants will cross the border in 2015, though others like the Examiner say the number is likely closer to 70,000.
In 2013, most of the immigrant population was Mexican-born, at 28 percent, followed by India, China, and the Philippines, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
While most 2016 presidential contenders have thus far focused on illegal immigration, the CIS's new report may spark a new debate over how legal immigration could affect the native-born U.S. population.
"There has been almost no national debate about bringing in so many people legally each year, which is the primary factor driving these numbers," Camarota said.
Last week, potential GOP presidential candidate and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker spoke on the issue during an appearance on Fox News' "Kelly File."
"The one thing they're not saying is we need to make sure as part of that any future legal immigration system that goes forward has to account for American citizens and the workers of this country and their wages to make sure that even with legal immigration in this country we respond to it in a way that doesn't take jobs away from hardworking Americans," Walker said, according to Breitbart.
Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions, who has largely led the immigration debate, echoed similar sentiments in a letter to The New York Times on Saturday, arguing that increased immigration will hurt the middle class.
"It defies reason to argue that the record admission of new foreign workers has no negative effect on the wages of American workers, including the wages of past immigrants hoping to climb into the middle class," Sessions wrote. "Why would many of the largest business groups in the United States spend millions lobbying for the admission of more foreign workers if such policies did not cut labor costs?"
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other key business leaders, including a group associated with former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, plan to meet on Friday to pitch their plan for even more immigration, according to the Examiner.
