Foreign-born reach historic high amidst debate over immigration in US
More foreign-born people call the United States home today than ever in history, new federal data shows, adding new context to the ongoing debate about border control, immigration and how many kids people are having.
President Donald Trump won the White House on a campaign that focused heavily on reducing the amount of illegal immigration across the Mexican border, and has toughened border enforcement after years of criticizing former President Joe Biden's softer approach.
The new January 2025 Current Population Survey said there are now 53.3 million foreign-born people living in the United States, representing about 15.8% of the overall population. The survey includes people who arrived both legally and illegally, and does not distinguish between the two.
The previous record high for foreign-born residents was 1890, when the percent of foreign-born in the United States hit 14.8%.
"We're in a place we've never been before," said Steven Camarota, research director for the Center for Immigration Studies, which supports limiting immigration.
Although nonpartisan, CIS often works closely with Republicans to craft policies designed to limit immigration, particularly illegal border crossing. It estimates that two-thirds of the growth in the foreign-born population came from illegal immigration during the past four years, most of them from Latin America.
Overall, more than half of foreign-born residents of the United States have become citizens through naturalization, while the remainder are here on a green card, on temporary protected status or lack documentation.
Camarota said the surge of foreign-born residents raises questions about assimilation, the labor force and consumer prices. He said the data shows that foreign-born workers most often work in fields like farming, forestry and fishing, landscaping, cleaning and maintenance. That keeps costs down for consumers, he said, but means U.S.-born workers in those industries can face depressed wages.
The Migration Policy Institute noted that the median income for foreign-born households is slightly higher overall at about $78,700 in 2023, compared to $77,600 for households headed by the U.S. born. The policy institute is a non-partisan immigration data nonprofit.
The data release comes as the Trump administration considers policies the president believes will encourage more native-born Americans to have children. A new Migration Policy Institute report said so few Americans are now having kids that the country's population growth, when accounting for deaths and other factors, comes entirely from immigration.
The Census Bureau noted that the U.S. population will likely begin to decline by the second half of this century unless immigration numbers remain high.
Immigration typically helps grow the economy by adding new workers to the labor force who need housing, food and other taxable consumables, while also bolstering programs like Social Security. Immigrants also provide the workforce needed to care for an aging population.
Trump has promised to deport millions of immigrants living in the United States without legal permission, which administration officials argue will help cut government spending by reducing the number of children in schools and people needing subsidized health care, as well as reducing competition for the country's limited housing supply.
The number of foreign-born people in the U.S. as a percentage of the total population was at its lowest in 1970, when they made up about 4.7% of residents, according to the Census Bureau.
As immigration hit previous highs, the U.S. implemented restrictions on legal immigration. First came the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, followed by the 1921 Emergency Quota Act, and then Immigration Act of 1924, according to the National Park Service, which manages Ellis Island as part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument.