The Center for Immigration Studies yesterday publicized a preliminary report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), describing September data showing the foreign-born population of the US, both legal and illegal, is continuing to decline. However, CIS notes that the report counts only the foreign-born aged 16 and older. The Center’s own analysis of prior months’ raw data has shown a huge decline in the foreign-born from January through July, including a 1.6 million falloff in illegal immigrants. The limited information available for September indicates that the decline has continued.
Without access to the full report, CIS says an examination of the data released so far “confirms that the illegal immigrant population is substantially smaller now than it was at the start of the year.” Here are some preliminary findings, obtained from the CIS:
- The September CPS data show an additional 101,000 falloff in the 16 and older foreign-born population since July. This follows a 1.9 million decline from January to July.
- The decline in the 16+ population since President Trump took office in January is 2 million. Based on the data released so far, the decline in the total foreign-born population is likely around 2.3 million January to September of this year.
- This represents a dramatic reversal from the 7.4 million increase from January 2021 to January 2025 in the 16+ foreign-born population.
- The new data indicates that the number of immigrants working continued to decline, while the number of U.S.-born people employed continued to increase since the start of the year.
- While CIS’s prior analysis showed that the decline in the foreign-born in the CPS was almost certainly real, it is possible the decline was due, at least in part, to a greater reluctance by immigrants to participate in the survey or to identify as foreign-born.
For more, see the CIS.