The immigrant population in America has dropped in record fashion since President Donald Trump returned to the Oval Office.
Driven by his promise to close the border left wide open by former President Joe Biden, a historic plunge in illegal immigrants entering the country helped push their population down 2.2 million, according to a new analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.
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Nearly three-quarters of the decline was in the illegal immigrant population, in part the result of “self-deportations” by many of the remaining 1.6 million illegal immigrants in the nation, said the analysis from the Washington, D.C.,-based Center for Immigration Studies.
“We have never seen a decline in the foreign-born like this before,” said Steven Camarota, the report’s lead author and the center’s director of research. “Based on the best evidence available, it appears the decline is real and represents a dramatic reversal of very rapid growth seen over the prior four years,” he added.
When Camarota’s team first determined that the immigrant population dropped in the first six months of the second Trump administration, there were doubters.
But in the new report that also included August, the cut in 2.2 million illegal immigrants was confirmed in several ways, detailed by CIS.
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“We find no reason to doubt that the decline in the foreign-born is real,” said the analysis from Karen Zeigler, a demographer for Camarota and CIS.
Camarota also told Washington Secrets on Thursday, “Prior to the last seven months, we would not have thought it possible to reduce the size of the illegal immigrant population so quickly. Actually enforcing the law has made a huge difference. There is no record of the foreign-born ever having declined this much this fast in American history.”
See their report, “Why the Decline in the Foreign-Born in the Monthly Household Survey in 2025 Is Very Likely Real,” here.
