The number of undocumented Korean immigrants in the United States, which had been showing a steady decline, is estimated to have reversed course and surpassed 140,000. According to the latest estimates provided exclusively to this newspaper on the 30th by the non-profit think tank Migration Policy Institute (MPI), the number of undocumented Korean nationals in the U.S. is projected to reach 142,000 as of mid-2024. This represents a staggering 22% surge compared to the 2023 estimate of 116,000 undocumented Korean immigrants.
Until now, the number of undocumented Korean immigrants across the U.S. had been on a continuous downward trend since peaking at 192,000 in 2013. Looking at yearly trends, the number steadily declined from 173,000 in 2019 to 116,000 last year, but it has shown a sharp rebound this year, surpassing the 140,000 mark again. However, the institute did not disclose the specific reasons behind the sudden resurgence in the number of undocumented Korean immigrants in this survey.
Meanwhile, according to the “Analysis Report on the Status of Undocumented Immigrants in the U.S. as of 2024,” officially released by the MPI on the 29th, the total number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. is currently estimated at 15.8 million, a record high. The institute analyzed that the explosive increase in the total number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. was caused by a combination of factors: a record surge in the influx of immigrants through the southern U.S.-Mexico border during the Joe Biden administration, coupled with the federal government’s extensive implementation of humanitarian temporary entry permit programs to alleviate unrest in border regions.
In particular, the study found that the number of undocumented immigrants from Latin American countries who crossed the border directly increased most significantly during this period. [Reported on page A3 of this newspaper’s July 30 issue] Although the detailed country-specific statistics tables in the official report recently released to the public did not include specific figures regarding Korean nationals, at the special request of this newspaper, the MPI separately extracted the status of undocumented Korean immigrants from its internal data and provided it to this newspaper as the final result.