Illegal aliens in U.S. number over 13,000,000.

• Position: YOUR LIFE

The illegal immigrant population of the U.S. now exceeds 13,000,000, according to a report from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), Washington, D.C. In 2000, the now-defunct Immigration and Naturalization Service estimated that there were a little more than 7,000,000 people residing illegally in the U.S.

The burden and costs of illegal immigration still are distributed unevenly across the country, but states and regions that virtually were immune to the impact of large-scale immigration just a decade ago currently are feeling the effects, finds the study. About 60% of all illegal immigrants are settled in just six states--California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, and New Jersey. Other reports by FAIR indicate that the combined costs of K-12 education, health care, and incarceration of criminals to those six states exceeds $27,000,-000,000 annually.

"These new estimates, showing explosive growth in illegal immigration in recent years, indicate why Americans all across the country are demanding that the government control our borders and block illegal immigrants from working or receiving benefits in this country," declares Dan Stein, president of FAIR. "Almost from the day the Bush Administration took office, they made it clear...