According to a report released by the Pew Hispanic Center April 14, between 85,000 and 120,000 illegal immigrants live in Alabama.
"It's definitely a concern," said State Representative Mike Hubbard. "And I think that we have known that it's a problem for some time."
Those approximations have more than doubled since 2005 when an estimated 40,000 illegal immigrants lived in Alabama. Only 5,000 illegal immigrants were estimated to be living in Alabama 20 years ago.
"Despite the fact that they're illegal, we don't know who they are and where they are," Hubbard said.
Hubbard said it raises a red flag because it is a matter of national security.
The majority of this population used to be located in California, Texas and Illinois, but has now branched out into the other states as well. Illegal immigrants came to Alabama and other southern states to find jobs in the construction, factory and service industries.
Despite the rise in the number of illegal immigrants in Alabama, it is still a relatively small percentage of the total 11.9 million illegal immigrants living throughout the U.S.
The report said unauthorized immigrants make up 4 percent of the nation's population and 5.4 percent of its workforce. In Alabama, they make up approximately 3.6 percent of the workforce, which consists of 2.2 million people total.
The Homeland Security Department said the nation's tough economy is discouraging people from sneaking into the country and causing the number of unauthorized immigrants to fall for the first time in four years.
The bad economy and lack of job opportunities might both be factors in the decelerating growth rate of the illegal immigrant population, but the Center for Immigration Studies said tough enforcement is also working.
The report also included additional information concerning the illegal immigrant population. On average, they are young families living in poverty, lacking health insurance and earning less money than U.S.-born workers and legal immigrants.
"Adult unauthorized immigrants are disproportionately likely to be poorly educated," the report said. " Among unauthorized immigrants ages 25-64, 47 percent have less than a high school education. By contrast, only 8 percent of U.S. -born residents ages 25-64 have not graduated from high school."
Seventy-three percent of unauthorized immigrants have children who are born U.S. citizens, the report said. And only about one percent of illegal immigrants are 65 or older. Sixteen and twelve percent of legal immigrants and U.S.-born citizens are 65 or older, respectively.
Mexicans make up 61 percent of illegal residents, the Homeland Security Department said.
The Pew Hispanic Center, which is part of a national nonpartisan research organization called the Pew Research Center based in Washington, D.C., used information from the U.S. Census Bureau to come up with these estimates.
The U.S. Census Bureau is currently preparing for the 2010 census, which for the first time will include illegal immigrants , prisoners, homeless shelter residents and dormitory residents to help make the census more accurate.
"Building on the achievements of the 2000 census, we have been testing and preparing for the 2010 count all decade," said Tom Mesenbourg, acting director of the U.S. Census Bureau in a news release.
The census determines how to divide up the federal funding between the states. If illegal immigrants are not counted in the census, then the government is not taking into account the money spent on services rendered for illegal immigrants.
"The primary goal of the census is to count everyone once, only once, and in the right place," Mesenbourg said.
Now each area will be given fair funding based on the actual residents living there, regardless of legality.
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