Illegal Migrant Population Almost 19 Million
Nearly 19 million illegal immigrants live in the United States, according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
“Since our December 2020 estimate, the illegal alien population in the United States has increased by 4.1 million, or 28.2%, reflecting an unprecedented wave of illegal immigration under the Biden administration,” the group reported Wednesday.
This higher figure will add to the pressure on Republican Party leaders and President Donald Trump, pushed by economic interests to roll back the popular expulsion of all illegal immigrants. But these expulsions are both popular and beneficial to Americans as the 2026 midterm elections approach.
The ambivalent comments from GOP members do not address whether they will scale back crackdowns on a huge population of nonviolent wage migrants.
“We had a little hiccup with some Hispanic and Latino voters, for sure, because some of the immigration measures were seen as overzealous,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said March 10. “But here’s the good news: We are currently in course correction mode.”
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), the new head of Homeland Security, opposes any amnesty for migrants but has been ambivalent about his preferred deportation policy.
The illegal migrant population adds to the huge annual influx of about 800,000 legal migrants and the resident population of about 2.5 million workers on temporary visas for white-collar, blue-collar and seasonal jobs.
The FAIR group explained why its estimate is higher than estimates provided by pro-migration groups.
The 18.6 million FAIRs include several hundred thousand people who entered the country illegally but were granted temporary documents by President Joe Biden’s pro-migration border czar.
Additionally, the Census Bureau changed how it counts the migrant population during Biden’s term:
The Census Bureau’s change in methodology validates FAIR’s long-standing position that official data, and organizations relying solely on that data, significantly underestimated the foreign-born, and therefore the illegal alien population. This is because the 2023 American Community Survey (ACS) and Current Population Survey (CPS) data relied upon by demographers and other researchers are weighted based on the Bureau’s pre-revision estimates and will similarly underestimate the foreign-born.
significant degree unless corrected.Only a year ago, CPS-based estimates of the foreign-born population showed that after four years of mass immigration, the foreign-born population reached a record high (over 50 million).18 This wave of immigration, New York TimeAs reported, it is the largest wave in American history, surpassing the Ellis Island “Great Wave” era of the late 1890s.19 At least 60 percent of the aliens who participated in this wave were illegal aliens. Today, thanks to the Census Bureau’s revision of its estimates of the foreign-born population, we know that even that record was underestimated by several million people.
Trump’s policy of deporting all illegal immigrants is already improving the economies of ordinary Americans — particularly those of millions of working-class Latinos who are seeing their wages rise in a wide variety of jobs.
Federal and market data show wages are rising and housing costs are falling. Inflation is falling, transportation costs are falling, crime is decreasing, and businesses are spending heavily to help Americans become more productive. The resulting prosperity will likely help increase birth rates as husbands earn more money. wages and wives earn more trust in the future.
