In this paper, we assess the likely contribution of immigration over the past three and a half decades to poverty in the U.S. We first document trends in poverty rates among the native-born by race and ethnicity and poverty trends among all immigrants, recent immigrants, and immigrants by their region and (in some instances) country of origin. Next, we assess how poverty rates among immigrants change with time in the United States. Finally, we simulate the effects of competition with immigrant labor on native wages and the likely consequent effects on native poverty rates. We find that international immigration to the U.S. between 1970 and 2005 has increased the overall poverty rate due to the facts that immigrants are more likely to be poor and that an increasing proportion of the U.S. resident population that is foreign born. This effect, however, is modest (it increases U.S. poverty rates by half a percentage point) and transitory, as immigrant poverty rates decline quickly with time in the U.S. Our wage simulations indicate that competition with immigrants does adversely impact those natives, and only those natives, with the least education. However, the impact of wage competition with immigrants on native poverty rates is negligible.