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

(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 ag