--- description: The majority of unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. are concentrated in just 20 major metropolitan areas title: Most Undocumented US Immigrants Live in 20 Big Cities image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc2925b5bbda1b54c/6988b988a988ca6d366baeff/gettyimages-633069984.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Immigration](/tag/immigration/) ## Immigration Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Majority of America's Undocumented Immigrants Live in 20 Urban Areas ## Video: What to Know About President Trump's Immigration Orders [Watch (HLS stream): What to Know About President Trump's Immigration Orders](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/pGFFV8Yk.m3u8) (1:06)  _Published 2017-01-25. President Donald Trump green-lighted construction of a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico he repeatedly called for while campaigning via an executive action._  by [Charlotte Alter](/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Senior Correspondent Feb 9, 2017 7:11 PM CUT  Following the issuance of an Executive Order by US President Donald J. Trump (January 27), and subsequent public backlash and emergency stay issued by Eastern District Federal Court Judge Ann M. Donnelly (January 28); thousands of demonstrators held a rally in Battery Park in lower Manhattan and marched to Foley Square in protest against Trump administration's policies regarding immigration. (Albin Lohr-Jones--Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images) Following the issuance of an Executive Order by US President Donald J. Trump (January 27), and subsequent public backlash and emergency stay issued by Eastern District Federal Court Judge Ann M. Donnelly (January 28); thousands of demonstrators held a rally in Battery Park in lower Manhattan and marched to Foley Square in protest against Trump administration's policies regarding immigration. (Albin Lohr-Jones--Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)Pacific Press—LightRocket via Getty Images  by [Charlotte Alter](/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Senior Correspondent Feb 9, 2017 7:11 PM CUT The majority of unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. are concentrated in just 20 major metropolitan areas, according to a new analysis based on government data. A report from [Pew Research](http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/02/09/us-metro-areas-unauthorized-immigrants/ "undefined") released Thursday found that 61% of the 11.1 million undocumented and 65% of legal immigrants in the U.S. live in big cities. The figures are almost double the share of the total U.S. population––36%––that lives in those 20 metro areas. The clustering of undocumented populations in urban areas is perhaps unsurprising, since new arrivals tend to go to areas where there are already large immigrant populations. New York (1.15 million) and Los Angeles (1 million) have the highest number of undocumented residents, with Houston, Dallas, Miami and Chicago also home to significant populations (Houston has roughly 575,000, Dallas has roughly 475,000, Miami has about 450,000 and Chicago has 425,000.) In addition to L.A., California is home to four of the other top 20 cities: San Francisco, San Jose, San Diego, and Riverside-San Bernardino. President Donald Trump [outperformed ](http://of Trump voters cited immigration as a "undefined")Hillary Clinton among rural voters in the 2016 election, while Clinton was stronger in many urban pockets. Sixty six percent of Trump voters cited immigration as a “big problem,” according to an August Pew report, compared to only 17% of Clinton supporters. Like many of the cities with the highest undocumented populations, [New York](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/09/02/us/sanctuary-cities.html?%5Fr=0 "undefined"), [Los Angeles](http://www.laweekly.com/news/la-defiant-as-trump-orders-halt-of-federal-cash-to-sanctuary-cities-7859370 "undefined"), and [Chicago](http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-rahm-emanuel-donald-trump-chicago-sanctuary-cities-met-0126-20170125-story.html "undefined") have vowed to remain “sanctuary cities” to shield their residents from federal immigration orders despite Trump’s executive order taking aim at federal funding for such cities. It’s unclear how much the executive order would actually affect municipal funding. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4665544/undocumented-u-s-immigrants-live-in-major-cities/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4665544/undocumented-u-s-immigrants-live-in-major-cities/"},"headline":"Majority of America's Undocumented Immigrants Live in 20 Urban Areas","datePublished":"2017-02-09T19:11:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T03:14:27.101Z","description":"The majority of unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. are concentrated in just 20 major metropolitan areas","url":"https://time.com/4665544/undocumented-u-s-immigrants-live-in-major-cities/","keywords":["Immigration","study","Pew","urban","trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc2925b5bbda1b54c/6988b988a988ca6d366baeff/gettyimages-633069984.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Charlotte Alter","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc2925b5bbda1b54c/6988b988a988ca6d366baeff/gettyimages-633069984.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Following the issuance of an Executive Order by US President","caption":"Following the issuance of an Executive Order by US President","creditText":"Pacific Press—LightRocket via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/immigration/","name":"Immigration"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4665544/undocumented-u-s-immigrants-live-in-major-cities/","name":"Majority of America's Undocumented Immigrants Live in 20 Urban Areas"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"What to Know About President Trump's Immigration Orders","description":"President Donald Trump green-lighted construction of a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico he repeatedly called for while campaigning via an executive action.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/pGFFV8Yk/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-01-25T15:56:15.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/pGFFV8Yk.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4665544/undocumented-u-s-immigrants-live-in-major-cities/","duration":"PT1M6S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4665544/undocumented-u-s-immigrants-live-in-major-cities/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```