Bulk of Oklahoma immigrants are undocumented

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- A federal report says nearly 40 percent of Oklahoma's foreign-born population are in the country illegally.<br/><br/>The report by the Pew Hispanic Center says Oklahoma has between

Tuesday, March 22nd 2005, 9:54 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- A federal report says nearly 40 percent of Oklahoma's foreign-born population are in the country illegally.

The report by the Pew Hispanic Center says Oklahoma has between 55,000 and 85,000 undocumented immigrants.

The report says at least 21 states have more illegal immigrants than Oklahoma, but that areas with a once small population of immigrants are now seeing rapid growth. States with a growing number of both legal and illegal immigrants tend to be where the new jobs are in construction, landscaping, poultry and hog processing.

The Washington, DC-based Pew Hispanic Center is a nonpartisan research organization supported by The Pew Charitable Trusts to improve understanding of the US Hispanic population and its growing impact.