"We've been seeing signs of this for a long time," Spendlove said. "Hispanics grew by 138 percent from 1990 to 2000, and the Census Bureau says a large portion of the state's population growth is due to international migration, people moving to Utah from outside of the United States."

Pamela Perlich, senior research economist at the University of Utah, said many of the U.S.-born citizens are the children of Mexican immigrants.

Still, much of Utah's Mexican-American population has for many generations been deeply rooted in American culture.

Rep. Mark Wheatley, D-Murray, grew up here and says the influx of immigrants hasn't changed the key issues, such as education.

When he graduated from the former South High School in 1973, Wheatley said, about half of his Hispanic friends had dropped out.

"Thirty years ago, there was still a high dropout rate amongst Hispanics," he said. "The issues that concern Hispanics, all our issues — education, health care, equal opportunity — transcend all segments. Unfortunately, they tend to be compounded in the ethnic communities."

Joe Reyna, a Texas native who spent much of his youth in a Mexican border town and who re-learned English as a teenager, is among those who sees a disconnect between the immigrants and U.S.-born citizens.

Reyna is chairman of the Utah Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and a regional president of Zions Bank over the Hispanic branches. He said many U.S.-born Hispanics "don't see a connection with the newly arrived immigrant or the undocumented."

Reyna said factors such as a language gap and workplace competition create disharmony.

Immigrant rights activist Tony Yapias, a naturalized citizen from Peru, also sees a disconnect in the way people see issues.

For example, he said, the undocumented will likely continue the fight this year to keep a law on the books that allows them to pay in-state tuition at colleges and universities. That's a benefit already belonging to the established population.

"They always talk about education being the single most important issue," Yapias said. "But it's education at a different level. For the undocumented, there is no life after high school, so they ask, 'Why do I need to finish high school if I can't legally work or I can't get (higher) education?"'

The 2005 ACS estimates are based on an annual, nationwide household sample of about 250,000 addresses per month. Data are available for areas with populations of 65,000 or more.

Today's release comes hours before the Utah Population Estimates Committee's scheduled release of its state and county population estimates for 2006. Those more current numbers won't be broken down by race or ethnicity.

For full comparison tables, click on the American Fact Finder at www.census.gov.

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E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com