Sluggish economy doesn't stop immigrants

Despite a weak job market, immigrants continue to come to the United States by the millions, breaking historic patterns in which immigration levels rise and fall with the economy. From 2000 to early 2004, the country's population of legal and illegal immigrants grew by 4.3 million people, adding to a record total of 34.2 million foreign-born in the country, found the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, About half of those newcomers were illegal immigrants, the report estimated. Immigrants now account for 12 percent of the country's population.