In conclusion
President Donald Trump’s vigorous deportation campaign against undocumented immigrants is centered in California. The number of immigrants in the United States is now declining.
According to the most recent data from the Pew Research Center, foreign-born residents are either opting to leave the country or being deported, resulting in a decline in the U.S. immigrant population for the first time in over 50 years.
The number of immigrants in the United States peaked at 53.3 million in January 2025. As of June 2025, that figure had decreased 2.6% to 51.9 million, the first drop in the number of immigrants in the United States since the 1960s.
In other words, a recent research from the independent fact-tank Pew indicates that, just months after President Donald Trump returned to office, there are already 1.4 million fewer immigrants in the US.
A number of causes, including policy changes beginning with the Biden administration, which imposed additional restrictions on asylum in mid-2024, may be contributing to the population reduction, according to Mark Hugo Lopez, director of race and ethnicity research at the Pew Research Center.
According to Lopez, the immigrant population may be influenced by a variety of factors, including the natural ebb and flow of immigrants as well as policies that have made it more difficult to cross the border and increased enforcement in the United States.
Between 2020 and 2025, a record 11 million immigrants entered the United States, according to Pew analysts. According to the Pew review of government data sources, that includes almost 3 million in 2023 alone, the highest annual figure ever documented.
According to the data, the number of unauthorized immigrants—those who do not have complete legal authorization to stay in the United States—rose to a new high of 14 million in 2023.
The group collected and examined information from the monthly Current Population Surveys conducted by the Census Bureau. Researchers pointed out that fewer immigrants are taking the survey, which could contribute to the recent decline in the projected total U.S. immigrant population.
The state with the highest percentage of immigrants is California. In 2023, 11.3 million immigrants, or 28.4% of the total, called California home. With over 6 million foreign-born citizens, Texas had the second-largest immigrant population, after New York and Florida.
At 2.3 million, California also has the highest population of undocumented immigrants. With Trump’s administration conducting high-profile raids in Los Angeles and issuing directives that threaten the state’s protections and benefits for immigrants, the state is the epicenter of his crackdown.
His administration criticized a state legislation that permits undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses earlier this week, accusing California officials of being responsible for a fatal collision in Florida that was reportedly caused by a semitruck driver without the proper documentation. A federal work permit was in the driver’s possession.
Trump enacted more than 100 executive measures on immigration in the first 100 days of his second term in office. These acts were intended to deport unauthorized immigrants, deny temporary protections to those who entered the country legally, and stop new migrants and refugees from arriving at the border.
Trump has promised a large deportation campaign with a reported aim of one million deportations in the first year, bringing about some of the biggest changes to U.S. immigration policy in the country’s history.
According to the Pew research, some immigrants may have left the country willingly as a result of the Trump administration’s crackdown, but it did not disclose the most recent deportation figures. His administration has transported convicts to a supermax jail in El Salvador, where they allege they were subjected to torture. Authorities have deported individuals to nations they have never visited, including South Sudan, which the U.S. Department of State deems unsafe, and Panama. U.S. residents and immigrants have been violently seized by federal immigration officers in Los Angeles and other Californian cities, who have smashed car windows and thrown people to the ground.
According to Pew, the decrease in the immigrant population from January to June was influenced by changes in enforcement and policy. Border crossings without authorization dropped to levels not seen since the 1960s. According to U.S. official statistics, the number of migrant arrests at the U.S.-Mexico border decreased to just under 8,000 in July from almost 96,000 in December, the final full month of the Biden administration.
Using the military and surveillance technologies to fortify the border and relocating Border Patrol personnel away from it, Trump has concentrated his enforcement efforts more in the nation’s interior this time.
According to the Pew survey, around 75% of immigrants are in the United States lawfully.
In 2023, 46% of immigrants had obtained U.S. citizenship through naturalization. An additional 4% were lawful temporary residents, who were allowed to remain in the United States for a brief length of time, typically for work or study, and nearly a quarter were lawful permanent residents, sometimes known as green card holders.
The remaining immigrants, who made up 27% of all immigrants in the United States, were classified as unauthorized.
About 6 million people, or 40% of undocumented immigrants, are temporarily protected from deportation; some of them also hold a permit that allows them to work lawfully in the United States.
About half a million legal immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela have had their work permits and deportation protections revoked by the Trump administration.
In recent years, the nations from which immigrants are arriving have also changed. South America and Europe are contributing an increasing amount, whereas Asia and sub-Saharan Africa are contributing a decreasing amount. Nevertheless, South and East Asia accounted for nearly a quarter (24%), of the additional immigrants between 2021 and 2023.
Between 2021 and 2023, Mexico accounted for 11% of all new arrivals, followed by India (8%), Venezuela (7%), Cuba (6%), and Colombia (5%).
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