Overview

• The Center for Immigration Studies analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Population Survey data finds a 2.2 million decrease in the foreign-born population from January to July 2025, including an estimated 1.6 million fewer illegal immigrants.
• CIS researchers describe the period as experiencing the largest six-month decline within a single year, with noncitizens accounting for all of the drop while naturalized immigrants rose slightly.
• The report attributes most of the reduction to aggressive interior enforcement, border policies, presidential rhetoric deterring new arrivals, prompting out-migration.
• Analysts warn that survey response rates may have fallen under heightened enforcement and that CIS’s broader working definition of “illegal” immigrants could inflate the estimated decline.
• The decline follows a record-setting immigration surge between 2021 and 2024 and could influence labor-market trends by shifting recent job gains toward native-born workers and potentially lifting wages for less-educated U.S. residents.