TRENTON — New Jersey remains a state with one of the highest estimated figures of undocumented immigrants in the country, but that number dropped by about 90,000 in the decade leading up to the election of Donald Trump as president, according to a new report.

The data from the Pew Research Center finds that from 2007 through 2016, the Garden State's decrease of 90,000 was the sixth-largest of any state in the U.S., and reflected a 16 percent decline. Pew said that decline was due "almost entirely" to a sharp drop in Mexican nationals making unauthorized entry.

By the end of 2016, New Jersey counted an approximate 475,000 undocumented immigrants among its residents, trailing only New York, Florida, Texas, and California.

The data in the report ends with the conclusion of 2016, about seven weeks after Trump was elected president, and so does not account for the increased focus on targeting illegal immigration in the nearly two years since he took office.

 

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