Border Crisis Has Completely Upended Census Bureau’s Population Stats, Report Says

Immigration into the U.S. has risen so rapidly that it beat out federal projections by decades, according to a report from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) released on Thursday.

The total number of immigrants in the U.S. rose to a record high of 51.4 million as of February 2024, representing 15.5% of the total population,according to CIS. The U.S. Census Bureau published projections in November which estimated that the share of foreign-born nationals in the U.S. would not reach 15.5% until at least 2039, making the projections “obsolete,” CIS authors Steven Camarota and Karen Zeigler wrote.

The 15.5% includes both immigrants who are in the U.S. legally and those who are undocumented or are in the country illegally, according to a CIS review of the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS). Illegal migrants account for roughly 25% of the 51.4 million total number of foreign nationals currently living in the U.S., the other 75% being in the country legally.

The number of U.S.-based immigrants grew by 6.4 million under the Biden administration alone, according to CIS. It is estimated more than half of the 6.4 million are illegal immigrants, which is larger than the individual population sizes of 33 different states.

“The enormous scale of immigration over the past three years has implications for nearly every aspect of American society, including public coffers, the labor market, schools, hospitals, and the balance of political power, to say nothing of whether we can assimilate this many people,” Camarota and Zeigler wrote in the study.

Roughly 2 million migrant encounters were recorded at the southern border in fiscal year 2023, compared to approximately 1.7 million in fiscal year 2021, according to Customs and Border Protection. Migrant apprehensions at the southern border never crossed more than 1 million under the former Trump administration.

“This increase over just 38 months (since President Joe Biden took office) is unprecedented,” Camarota and Zeigler wrote. “Looking at each presidency shows that growth since the start of the Biden administration is dramatically higher than the increase during Trump’s or Obama’s time in office.”

If current trends continue, the total foreign-born share of the U.S. population will reach roughly 60 million by the end of a second possible Biden term in 2028, according to CIS. At present, the number of immigrants in the U.S. is higher than at any point in American history.

The U.S. Census Bureau did not immediately respond to a request for comment.