What percentage of undocumented immigrants in the US are of a different race?

1. What the question likely means, and why that matters

Interpreting “different race” requires a baseline: different from whom—U.S. citizens overall, the native-born population, or a specific racial group—because race and ethnicity reporting for immigrants is often recorded separately (race versus Hispanic ethnicity) and the most common public framing focuses on Hispanic origin rather than discrete race categories; sources supplied emphasize Hispanic origin and country of birth more than a single “different race” percentage ^{[4] [5] [1]}.

2. What the supplied data actually show about size and composition

Recent authoritative estimates put the unauthorized/undocumented population in the U.S. in the ballpark of 11–14 million depending on the methodology and year: Migration Policy Institute estimates about 11.4 million (MPI) and Pew recently reported a rise to 14 million for 2023 in its reporting ^{[1] [6] [7]}. These reports and data tools break the population down by region and country of origin and provide race/ethnicity tables in underlying datasets, but the short excerpts here do not print a one-line percentage saying “X% are of a different race” ^{[1] [7] [3]}.

3. What is known about Hispanic versus racial categories in the undocumented population

Most public analyses and advocacy briefs highlight that a large portion of the undocumented population is of Hispanic origin and that growth in recent years has been driven by arrivals from Central and South America; for instance, reporting documents substantial increases from those regions and notes that Mexico’s share has fallen to historically low levels even as it remains a large single-country origin ^{[8] [5] [9]}. Center for Migration Studies (CMS) materials and specialized briefs explicitly tabulate undocumented populations by race and present dedicated profiles of Black undocumented immigrants, indicating that race-level breakdowns exist in the underlying CMS datasets, but the supplied snippet does not include the specific percentages needed to answer “different race” without further data retrieval ^{[2] [10]}.

4. Limits of the available snippets and why a precise percentage can’t be asserted

The provided snippets include references to datasets and summary statements—e.g., MPI’s 11.4 million estimate, Pew’s 14 million headline, and CMS race tables—but they do not include the complete race-by-status table or a clearly defined comparator for “different race”; therefore any single-number answer would be an extrapolation beyond the supplied material ^{[1] [7] [2]}. Researchers warningly treat “race” and “Hispanic origin” separately, which complicates translating available ethnicity-focused summaries into a single “different race” percentage ^{[4] [11]}.

5. Alternative approaches and what the sources would allow if queried further

To produce a precise percentage, one must choose a baseline (for example, share of undocumented who identify as non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic Black, Asian, etc.) and then pull the CMS or MPI tabulations cited in the supplied sources; CMS explicitly publishes tables of undocumented population by race and year, and MPI’s data hub includes race/ethnicity profiles for the unauthorized population—those primary sources would yield the exact percentages requested ^{[2] [12] [1]}. Readers should note that different research groups use diverging methods and definitions (MPI, CMS, Pew, DHS), which can shift percentages modestly and reflect implicit agendas—advocacy groups may emphasize long-term residency and protections, while some government briefings may focus on recent border admissions ^{[13] [7]}.