Caribbean Immigrants Are Less Likely To Be Undocumented In The US

By NAN Staff Writer

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Mon. June 12, 2023: Caribbean immigrants in the U.S. make up a tiny percentage of the 11 million unauthorized immigrants residing in the country.

Based on estimates from the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), it is believed that as of 2019, just 3 percent or around 327,000 undocumented immigrants were from the Caribbean.

Caribbean immigrants are among the black voting bloc in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for MoveOn)

Among the unauthorized Caribbean immigrant population, approximately half were from the Dominican Republic (164,000), followed by Haiti (70,000), Jamaica (55,000), and Trinidad and Tobago (14,000).

Data provided by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), show there were approximately 6,210 unauthorized Caribbean immigrants actively participating in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program as of December 2021. DACA offers temporary relief from deportation and work authorization. These individuals accounted for around 1% of the total 611,500 DACA participants. The largest participating Caribbean groups in DACA were individuals from Jamaica (2,020 participants), the Dominican Republic (1,780), and Trinidad and Tobago (1,340).