Washington, D.C., Sept. 03, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Washington, D.C. (September 3, 2026) – A new analysis by the Center for Immigration Studies of the government’s monthly household survey shows a 2.9 million decline in the foreign-born population since January of 2025. This population includes naturalized citizens, lawful permanent residents, long-term temporary visitors, and illegal immigrants. CIS preliminarily estimates that the illegal immigrant population has fallen by 2.3 million over the same period.
“The best data we have shows an enormous decrease in the total foreign-born population, with most of the falloff among illegal immigrants,” said Steven Camarota, CIS director of research and the report’s lead author. “Regaining control of the border and robust interior enforcement has partly undone the huge increase in the illegal immigration that took place during the border surge.”
Key Findings:
- The total foreign-born population declined 2.9 million from January 2025 to July 2026. This follows an 8.3 million increase in the prior four years during the post-Covid border surge.
- The huge recent decline in the foreign-born population indicates that net migration to the United States was negative in the last year and a half for the first time since the 1930s.
- Latin American non-citizens who arrived in 1980 or later account for all of the decrease. This population overlaps significantly with the illegal immigrant population.
- We preliminarily estimate that the illegal immigrant population may have declined 2.3 million, from 15.8 million in January of 2025 to 13.5 million in July of 2026. The net change reflects new arrivals offset by deportations, voluntary emigration, legalizations, and natural mortality.
- Only 44 percent of the decline in the foreign-born are workers, the rest are children, the elderly, and other non-workers. This fact, along with employment gains by the U.S.-born mitigates the impact on the labor market and may help explain why the survey of businesses does not show a dramatic decline in workers.
- It is possible that some of the recent decline reflects immigrants’ increased unwillingness to take part in the survey rather than their leaving the country, though we have no clear evidence of this. Survey response rates are not correlated with the size of the foreign-born population. Further, the share of respondents not answering immigration-related questions remains low and unchanged.
Marguerite Telford, Director of Communications Center for Immigration Studies, CIS.org 202-466-8185 mrt@cis.org
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