Dual Citizenship in America: An Issue of Vast Proportions and Broad Significance*

Fueled in part by the numbers of new immigrants, the United States is becoming dramatically more diverse—racially, ethnically, and culturally. The latest census figures show that the number of legal and illegal immigrants living in the United States has almost tripled since 1970, rising from 9.6 million to 28.3 million today and far out-pacing the growth of the native-born population (Escobar 1999; U.S. Department of Commerce 2000. ¹