Who's at risk of deportation in Washington state?
5 things to know
By: Teo Popescu and Eilis O'Neill
February 10, 2025
President Donald Trump has committed to deporting millions of immigrants who are in the U.S. without legal status, and that effort began swiftly and in new ways.
KUOW looked into who is at risk of deportation in Washington state: how many immigrants are here without legal status, where they immigrated from, what type of jobs they do, and more.
The vast majority of these residents have lived in the U.S. more than a decade and established various ties in the broader communities where they live.
Numbers have been rounded to the nearest integer. Percentages may not add up to 100%.
Mixed-status households and families, where at least one member is an unauthorized immigrant, exist in multiple ways in Washington state. In 2019, 38% of unauthorized immigrants 15 and older resided with at least one U.S. citizen child. More recent numbers from 2022 show that 200,000 households—6.4% of Washington households—include at least one unauthorized immigrant member. And 10.7% of K-12 students had at least one unauthorized immigrant parent in 2022.
Where did these numbers come from?
Graphic 1: Pew Research Center, 2022
Graphic 2: Center for Migration Studies, 2022
Graphic 3: Migration Policy Institute, 2019 and Pew Research Center, 2022
Graphic 4: Migration Policy Institute, 2019
Graphic 5: Migration Policy Institute, 2019
The Migration Policy Institute, the Pew Research Center, and the Center for Migration Studies provided the statistical estimates in each graphic. The estimates are primarily based on information provided by the U.S. Census Bureau and American Community Survey.
These estimates have the same sampling and coverage errors as any other survey-based estimates that rely on American Community Survey and other Census Bureau data.
In the case of Graphic 1, the margin of error has been displayed as a visual block behind the main line graph, to show the transparency regarding the difficulty of acquiring accurate data on this population.
A note on language:
NPR updated its style guide on 01/20/25 to no longer refer to immigrants as “unauthorized” or “undocumented” unless in a direct quote. The standard to use instead is “people who are in the U.S. without legal status.” The aim is for terminology that is clear and accurate, given that a person’s immigration status can be complex or documented in various ways. In this case, KUOW chose to use the term “unauthorized immigrant” to match the language used in the data sources we referenced.
Credits
Story: Teo Popescu and Eilis O'Neill
Design: Teo Popescu
Editors: Liz Jones and Liz Brazile
Product Manager: Lisa Wang
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