Nearly one in 10 Hispanics in the United States report that police or other authorities have stopped them in the last year and asked them about their immigration status, the Pew Hispanic Center said in a report released today.

The finding comes amid the biggest crackdown in decades illegal immigration — one that’s been highly visible in Texas, the No. 2 destination for such migrants. Municipal police in several suburbs of Dallas, including Irving and Carrollton, have stepped up cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

The report’s co-author, Mark Lopez, characterized the 10 percent finding as “surprising,” but declined to speculate on causes because follow-up questions on the survey were not asked.

Rey de los Santos, a Latino leader in Dallas, called the survey’s finding “alarming” and suggested that racial, ethnic or language profiling should be stopped unless it involves a terror suspect. “It is the only way we as U.S. citizens should tolerate that,” said Mr. de los Santos, a North Texas district director for the League of United Latin American Citizens.

The report by the non-partisan Pew Hispanic Center surveyed about 2,000 Hispanic adults and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percent. Hispanics now comprise about 15.4 percent of the U.S. population, or 46 million persons. Roughly, 30 million are over 18 years of age.

The report also found that four in five Latinos said that immigration enforcement should be left mainly to the federal authorities rather than police and that 73 percent disapprove of the criminal prosecution of undocumented immigrants who are working without authorization.

In the past, federal authorities have detained illegal immigrants by charging them with administrative offenses under U.S. immigration law.