Roughly one million illegal migrants estimated to have left US since Trump returned

Roughly one million illegal migrants booked it out of the U.S. since January, according to preliminary estimates from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS).

There were approximately 14.8 million illegal migrants in the U.S. in May, one million fewer than were estimated to be in the country in January, according to CIS, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that advocates for lower levels of immigration. The group contributed the decline, at least in large part, to President Donald Trump’s rhetoric and nationwide crackdown on illegal migrants.

“These results strongly support the idea that the election of Donald Trump, his rhetoric, and high-profile enforcement actions as soon as he took office caused a large number of illegal immigrants to leave the country,” the study’s authors said.

“A large decline in the number of illegal immigrants could be very helpful to less-educated U.S.-born and legal-immigrant workers, whose wages may rise as a result,” the authors said. “Further, a tighter labor market and higher wages may help to draw back into jobs the near-record number of working-age American men without a college degree not in the labor force.”

CIS based their analysis off the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Current Population Survey, which showed a significant decline in the immigrant population — both legal and illegal — from January to May. The decline stemmed from a drop in the number of Latin American noncitizens who entered the U.S. in 1980 or later, a population CIS says overlaps “significantly” with illegal migrants.

During this same time frame, the number of foreign-born individuals in the labor force plummeted by more than 600,000, according to CIS’ analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Current Population Survey.

While the illegal immigration changes are significant, CIS cautioned that the findings remain preliminary as more administrative data is due to be released and suggested at least some of the decline could be due to greater reluctance from immigrants to participate in the government survey or identify as foreign born.

The new data comes as Trump continues to follow through on a pledge to conduct the largest deportation operation in U.S. history and buckle down on gains made along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Since returning to the White House in January, the president immediately got to work on a number of executive actions and administrative reforms aimed at securing the southern border, such as declaring a national emergency, prioritizing wall construction, coercing the Mexican government to deploy their own national guard to the region and a slate of other directives.

In lieu of deportation, the administration is also offering free plane tickets and a $1,000 stipend to illegal immigrants who choose to self-deport — an offer that some have taken up already.

The actions have so far proved fruitful, with historically low levels of illegal immigration occurring along a border that was once in crisis. The administration achieved a record for all-time lowest border encounters in a single month when Border Patrol agents counted roughly 7,180 crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border during March. In May, the Trump administration revealed that not a single migrant was released into the U.S.

For comparison, the number of migrants released into the U.S. in May 2024 was about 62,000 and the monthly average number of border crossings during the Biden-era was 155,000, according to the Trump administration.

A study by the New York Times released in December found that President Joe Biden oversaw the largest level of net migration in U.S. history, surpassing even the great immigration booms of the 1800s and early 1900s.

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