US has 25 million illegal immigrants: Texas Lt. Gov.
As House Republican leaders work to overhaul immigration, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told FOX Business the total undocumented immigrant population is more than double the estimated 11 million living and working in the United States.
Patrick said “the left’s” accusation that there are 11 million people in the U.S. illegally was projected from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 2004 but the Customs and Border Patrol apprehends about 400,000 people per year from Brownsville, Texas, to San Diego, California.
“We think we get one out of every five [trying to cross the border illegally],” he told Stuart Varney on “Varney & Co.” on Friday. “That means every year since 2004 a million to a million and a half are getting across that we don’t apprehend. If you add those numbers to 2004 we have 25 to 30 million people here illegally.”
The drug cartels, he said, have found clever ways to hide certain people who they don’t want the U.S. to catch.
“They push these families forward,” he said. “They take up a lot of our border patrol and then they sneak their drugs and they hide people who are paying them to cross the border in other areas.”
Patrick blames Democrats for not passing reform.