The debate on immigration reform in America has become poisoned with demagoguery and hate. The possibilities of a bi-partisan political compromise appear distant as politicians attempt to turn the issue towards their short term political advantage.

However while the immigration debate has raged, this Research Brief shows that a fundamental demographic transformation is occurring with stunning rapidity in Illinois. An update of the 2000 U.S. Census shows that by 2005 the Illinois immigrant population grew by 177,000 people, a number greater than the population of Aurora, Illinois’s second largest city. While the immigrant population of the City of Chicago dropped 5% (a first since the 1960’s) almost all of this growth occurred in the suburbs of Chicago. The immigrant population growing most rapidly in the suburbs is naturalized U.S. citizens.

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