Center for Immigration Studies Director of Research Dr. Steven Camerota said more than a quarter million immigrants who are new arrivals are 50 and older, when it used to be 100,000, and it's impacting healthcare.
Why?
Declining fertility and increased life expectancy isn't isolated to Americans, it's happening across the world.
Camerota allowing in older people has a negative impact on public coiffures like taxes paid and services used.
"We're adding a lot of low-income people in the long-term to the US population, which further tends to strain social insurance programs because lower income people tend to pay in less and receive more out than higher income earners if we're talking about things like Medicare and social security," said Camerota.
From 2000-2017 working age (18-64) illegal immigrants increased 42 percent, but 65 and older increased by 108 percent.
Camerota said illegal imigrants tend to be less educated and poorer than native-born Americans.
He said in 2000, the number of illegal immigrants 50 and older made up eight percent of new arrivals, but nearly doubled to 15 percent in 2017.
Those 55 and older more than doubled from five percent to 12 percent.
Camerota added immigrants admitted legally exploded in years past, leading to the parents category doubling in size. Their naturalized US citizen children are now sponsoring them.