Are more than a half-million illegal immigrants eligible for a pathway to legal status, allowing them to stay in the United States?
That’s the question raised in a Breitbart News report this weekend.
The conservative news outlet cites a report by the Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC), a pro-immigration group that says that 15 percent of the 4 million illegal immigrants living in seven states in the South may be eligible for amnesty.
That’s about 600,000 people.
CLINIC’s estimate is based on claims from people who say they came to the United State either to flee from potential persecution abroad or because they already have family members living here.
A research who worked on the report for CLINIC told Reuters that President Donald Trump’s administration should not be deporting illegal immigrants to begin with.
Texas, Georgia and Florida are mentioned outlined in the CLNIC study.
Breitbart notes that there are “approximately 11-30 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S., costing taxpayers an estimated $113 billion while also putting a strain on public hospitals, public housing, and public education systems.”