What percentage of undocumented immigrants in the US are of a different race, other than white?
Executive summary
Available sources place the unauthorized (undocumented) population in the United States in the roughly 11–12 million range in recent years (for example, 11.4 million in MPI reporting and 12.2 million in other estimates) [1][2]; however, the assembled reporting does not provide a clear, directly measured breakdown of that population by U.S. racial categories (white vs. non‑white), so a precise percentage of undocumented immigrants who are “of a different race, other than white” cannot be asserted from these sources alone [1][2].
1. Why the question seems simple — and why the sources don’t quite answer it
The undocumented population is repeatedly estimated in the low tens of millions across authoritative outlets — for example, Migration Policy Institute’s estimate of about 11.4 million unauthorized immigrants [1] and other research citing roughly 11–12 million [3][2] — yet the datasets and summaries cited in the provided reporting emphasize nationality, region of origin, legal status categories and population totals rather than the U.S. Census-style race variable needed to declare a single white vs. non‑white percentage for that group [1][4][2].
2. What the reporting does offer that matters for race estimates: origin and region
Researchers commonly report origins and regions because those attributes are central to immigration dynamics: for example, reporting highlights a large share of unauthorized migrants coming from Mexico and other parts of Latin America and notes changing flows by country and time of arrival [5][6]; DHS and other agencies maintain tabulations of the unauthorized population by origin region and country that analysts use as proxies when race is not directly available [4][1].
3. Why origin data is an imperfect proxy for U.S. racial categories
Country or regional origin does not map cleanly onto U.S. Census race categories: many people from Latin America identify ethnically as Hispanic or Latino while their race responses vary (white, Black, Indigenous, multiracial, etc.), and Asian, African, and Caribbean arrivals add further heterogeneity; the sources show the importance of origin-based breakdowns (for example, Mexico historically being a large single-country source) but do not translate those origins into a validated white vs. non‑white share for the undocumented population [5][1].
4. Best available inference — majority non‑white is likely, but not provable from these sources
Given the documented concentration of unauthorized arrivals from Latin America (Mexico a major share in recent years) and growing flows from other regions, it is plausible that a majority of undocumented immigrants would be classified as non‑white under conventional U.S. race categories; the provided materials indicate large Latin American representation [5] and emphasize heterogeneity and regional composition [1][4], but they stop short of providing the explicit race-variable tabulation needed to convert that plausibility into a definitive percentage [1][2].
5. What would be needed to answer the question precisely — and where to look next
A definitive answer requires microdata that includes both an imputed unauthorized status and respondents’ self‑reported race (for example, pooled American Community Survey or Census microdata with the unauthorized‑status imputations used by MPI or Center for Migration Studies); the reporting references those methodological approaches for population totals [1][2] but does not disclose a published race split, so consulting ACS microdata with MPI/Van Hook‑style imputations or DHS/OHSS origin-and-race cross‑tabs would be the next step to produce a precise white vs. non‑white percentage [1][4].