by David Lindfield
The United States has experienced an extraordinary reversal in migration under President Donald Trump, with new Census Bureau survey data indicating that the foreign-born population has fallen by nearly 3 million since he returned to the White House.
An analysis of the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) found that the foreign-born population declined by 2.9 million between January 2025 and July 2026.
The shift follows an estimated 8.3 million increase during the previous four years amid the post-pandemic border surge under former President Joe Biden.
“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,” CIS said.
The foreign-born category includes naturalized citizens, lawful permanent residents, long-term temporary visitors, and illegal immigrants, meaning the overall decline cannot simply be equated with deportations.
But CIS estimates that the illegal immigrant population itself has fallen substantially, from 15.8 million in January 2025 to 13.5 million in July 2026, a decline of approximately 2.3 million.
Trump Border Crackdown Reverses Biden-Era Surge
The dramatic shift comes as the Trump administration combines mass deportations with much tighter enforcement at the southern border.
Trump campaigned heavily on ending the border crisis that developed under Biden and reinstating enforcement of federal immigration law.
“I closed our border,” Trump told British outlet GB News on Thursday.
“We haven’t had a person come in illegally into our country through the southern border in 17 months now…
“Nobody gets in — and you could do the same thing, and so could Spain.”
Federal border statistics show a dramatic collapse in encounters since Trump returned to office.
During fiscal year 2023 under Biden, Customs and Border Protection recorded nearly 2.5 million encounters at the southwest border. Approximately 270,000 occurred in September 2023 alone.
In February 2025, Trump’s first full month back in office, the monthly figure had fallen to roughly 11,700.
The administration also ended the widespread use of “catch and release,” under which migrants apprehended after illegally entering the country could be released into the United States while awaiting immigration proceedings.