Illegal immigration to New York City

According to a study by the Fiscal Policy Institute, about 4.08 million immigrants lived in New York State in 2007, Of the immigrants in the state, about three million live in New York City. A 2007 report by Fiscal Policy Institute estimated there were 535,000 illegal immigrants in New York City. In all, undocumented immigrants make up 18 percent of all immigrants living in New York City. ==Participation in labor force==

Although undocumented immigrants do not have legal permanent status in the country, locally they have a significant presence in the city's economy and job market. As former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg explained, "Although [illegal aliens] broke the law by illegally crossing our borders or over-staying their visas and our businesses broke the law by employing them, our city’s economy would be a shell of itself had they not, and it would collapse if they were deported." According to a 2005 report by the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York and the New York City Restaurant Industry Coalition, illegal alien workers in the restaurant industry in New York City receive substantially lower wages than legal workers. According to the report, the median wage of all restaurant workers in the city was $8.00 an hour. However, when illegal alien workers’ earnings were taken out of the sample, the median wage rose to $9.00 an hour. Experts say the main reason so many of these undocumented workers are employed is because they are in the country illegally, and, consequently, are less likely to report workplace abuses to the authorities for fear of deportation. As a result, many of these workers hold jobs that pay less than the minimum wage and require them to work 100-hour work weeks. ==Social and fiscal impacts==

Education In 1996, New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani stated: "The reality is that [illegal aliens] are here, and they're going to remain here. The choice becomes for a city what do you do? Allow them to stay on the streets or allow them to be educated? The preferred choice from the point of view of New York City is to be educated." Law enforcement Although the New York City Police Department (NYPD) does not check immigration status of people seeking medical attention or education services, it does check the immigration status of anyone who commits a crime. ==Laws==

In October 1986, Congress passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), which authorized legalization for illegal immigrants who could prove they had resided in the U.S. continually, although without appropriate documentation, since January 1, 1982. New York state supports the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals executive actions taken by Barack Obama, which allowed about four million illegal immigrants to receive work permits and be protected from deportation. On September 17, 2003, Bloomberg issued Executive Order 41 to protect the privacy of illegal immigrants and to grant them access to City services that they need and are entitled to receive. According to Executive Order 41, if an illegal immigrant goes to a City agency to request certain services or benefits, City employees will not ask about their immigration status unless it is required by law, or necessary to determine whether they are eligible to receive those services or benefits. Furthermore, if an illegal immigrant is the victim or witness of a crime, or if they call or approach the police seeking assistance, police officers will not inquire about their immigration status. In January 2017, President Donald Trump enacted a new executive order that would allow illegal immigrants nationwide to be deported on lesser charges than previously. Over the week of February 6, 2017, six hundred people in 11 states, including 41 people in the New York City area, were arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The ICE stated that of those arrested in the New York City area, 95% of those arrested were criminal aliens. Specifically, of the 41 arrested, 38 had at least one criminal conviction. The New York City raids had been planned since January and focused mainly on people who immigrated from Central American countries. The ICE had arrested more illegal immigrants in the New York metropolitan area in previous raids, including 58 in an August 2016 raid. However, the new ICE raids under Trump's presidency represented an increased enforcement of immigration policy, including detaining and potentially deporting 8 million of the country's estimated 11 million illegal immigrants. As a result, after the February raids, there were reports of increases in people looking for free legal help from immigrant-rights law firms. The NYPD said that it was not involved in the raids. After being greatly reduced in number during Joe Biden's lone term in office, the arrests and raids returned to their previous levels in Trump's second term in office, particularly highly publicized raids of the counterfeit goods vendors along Manhattan's Canal Street in late October 2025, and further arrests after protests outside one hospital in Bushwick, Brooklyn, just after the start of May 2026. ==See also==