Immigration population in US plunges for first time since 1960s amid Trump crackdown

The Trump administration launched a severe crackdown on immigrants after returning to power.

The Pew Research Center said in its latest study that in January 2025, 53.3 million immigrants lived in the United States – the largest number ever recorded.

"In the ensuing months, however, more immigrants left the country or were deported than arrived. By June, the country’s foreign-born population had shrunk by more than a million people, marking its first decline since the 1960s," the study said.

As per the research group, the number dropped to 51.9 million by June.

The study found 15.4 percent of all U.S. residents were immigrants, down from a recent historic high of 15.8 percent.

The study pointed out that in the first 100 days since returning to the White House in January, President Donald Trump took 181 executive actions on immigration to curtail the arrival of new immigrants and deport noncitizen immigrants.

Where are U.S. immigrants from?

As of mid-2023 – the latest year for which detailed data is available – more than 11 million U.S. residents were born in Mexico, representing 22% of all immigrants nationally.

The second-largest immigrant group was from India (3.2 million, or 6%), followed by China (3 million, or 6%), the Philippines (2.1 million, or 4%) and Cuba (1.7 million, or 3%).

About half of all U.S. immigrants (52%, or 26.7 million people) were born in Latin America. In addition to the millions of migrants from Mexico and Cuba, more than a million hail from El Salvador (1.6 million), Guatemala (1.4 million), the Dominican Republic (1.4 million), Colombia (1.2 million), Honduras (1.1 million) and Venezuela (1.1 million).

After Latin America, Asia is the second-largest region of birth for U.S. immigrants. In 2023, around a quarter of all immigrants (27%, or nearly 14 million people) were born in Asia.

As of 2023, there were about 11 million immigrants from every other world region combined, accounting for 22% of the U.S. foreign-born population: 10% were born in Europe, 5% in sub-Saharan Africa, 4% in the Middle East-North Africa region, and 2% in Canada or another North American country (a category that includes Bermuda and some smaller countries).

Mexico was the largest origin country for immigrants who arrived between 2021 and 2023.

"About 11% of immigrants who came to the U.S. during this period were born in Mexico," the research said.

Rounding out the top five countries of origin for immigrants who arrived during this period were India (8%), Venezuela (7%), Cuba (6%) and Colombia (5%), as per the research.