Pew: U.S. immigrant population declines for first time in nearly 60 years

By Caroline Boda
The Center Square

The U.S.’s foreign-born population shrunk this year for the first time since the 1960s, new data released Thursday from the nonpartisan Pew Research Center found.

After rapidly growing for more than 50 years, the number of immigrants living in the U.S. reached a record high of 53.3 million in January 2025. The following months showed a decline of nearly 1.5 million, a likely mark of President Donald Trump’s second-term immigration policies.

The new Pew study shows that more people are leaving the U.S. than are entering it, the first time this has happened in more than half a century.

The analysis also found that the number of noncitizens in the U.S. illegally reached a record high of 14 million in 2023, a trend which Trump routinely drew on while campaigning against his opponents in the 2024 presidential race, first former President Joe Biden and then former Vice President Kamala Harris.

A nationwide crackdown on immigration has been a central part of Trump’s second-term policy agenda. He has signed 181 executive orders relating to immigration since returning to the White House in January. The administration has implemented its immigration policies through mass deportations of noncitizens, incentivising self deportations, heightened security at the U.S.’s southwestern border and by toughening up student visa requirements.

These policies were reflected in Pew’s data, which found that the percent of the U.S. population made up of immigrants shrunk to 15.4% in June from 15.8% in January.

Immigrants, both lawful and unlawful, make up a sizable portion of the U.S. workforce. Pew’s report shows that the U.S. lost more than 750,000 workers since January with the percent of immigrants in the workforce declining from 20% to 19% in six months.

Economists say the strain a declining workforce will have on the U.S. economy is contingent on the scope of Trump’s immigration policies during the latter half of his second term. If current trends continue, the U.S. is likely to face economic challenges stemming from the significant decline in workers.