More immigrants -- 12.5 percent of the population -- live in the United States today than at any time since 1910. Almost one-third of these immigrants entered the country without government authorization, most often to seek work.

"They're here to stay," said Max Pfeffer, professor of development sociology and senior associate dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Pfeffer and Pilar Parra, research associate and senior lecturer in nutritional sciences, will draw on more than a decade of research to brief Congressional staff on U.S. immigration policies Sept. 24 in Washington, D.C.

Pfeffer and Parra's research focuses on immigrants at the community level. Since about 1990, immigrants have been settling increasingly in small communities. More than half of these immigrants are Latin American; 30 percent are from Mexico alone. Widely dispersed across the nation, they face social isolation, language barriers and limited access to health care and education.

"They are distinctive from earlier waves of immigrants," said Parra. "Their language and ethnicity is different. They stand out. They have special needs. In communities where there isn't recent experience of waves of immigration, problems or opportunities arise."

Such economic forces that have driven immigrants to the United States in recent years include industry's high demand for labor in the 1980s and '90s; Salvadorans fleeing civil unrest in the '80s; immigrants granted amnesty from the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act sending for families; and the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which removed many subsidies for Mexican agriculture, further impoverishing rural farmworkers (one out of 10 Mexicans now lives in the United States).

"Immigration control -- trying to keep people from coming into the country -- by itself can't work," said Pfeffer. "We advocate a comprehensive approach to immigration policy that includes support for community development to accommodate immigrants."

The current economic slowdown has slowed illegal immigration from 500,000 people in recent years to 300,000. But immigrants, legal and illegal, have put down roots in the United States -- 64 percent of children living in unauthorized immigrant families are U.S. citizens by birth.

"You have families that have been here for some time," said Pfeffer. "They're permanent members of the community. That's why the DREAM Act [bipartisan legislation that would provide foreign born children of unauthorized immigrants living in the United States with a pathway to permanent U.S. residency and the opportunity to attend college] becomes really important."

Parra added that curtailing opportunities for these immigrants could generate "a marginalized, isolated underclass." Pfeffer added, "It's bad for them, and bad for everybody. ... We have to embrace the immigrant presence and turn it into a positive."

If immigrants become productive, pay taxes, buy cars and houses, they become an asset, said Pfeffer. "The government must assist communities with resources to reach out to immigrants. Integration is the answer. It will pay off locally and at the national level."

He and Parra will brief Congressional staff members on their research, which includes such findings as immigrants who socialize outside their own ethnic community do better; learning English greatly contributes to immigrants' success; and immigrants who are self-sufficient are the most successful, have better jobs, higher incomes and are more likely to buy houses.

"How to end illegal immigration is a huge problem," said Parra. "Immigrants can become a burden. That's a reality. We need limits. We need structure and law. But national policies focused on mostly immigration control haven't worked."

Pfeffer and Parra's briefing in Washington is part of a program organized by the Cornell Center for a Sustainable Future and the Cornell Agricultural Experiment Station.