2 million immigrants added to U.S. population in just 16 months: ‘America’s headed into uncharted territory’

A new analysis for the Center for Immigration Studies reveals the total foreign-born or immigrant population in the United States topped 47 million in April 2022, with 2 million entering America in the 16 months since President Joe Biden took office — a clear sign to experts that “America has lost control of its borders.”

“These numbers are extraordinary, not only because they indicate that America has lost control of its borders, but also because they raise profound questions about how many people the country can successfully integrate,” writes Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, D.C., for the New York Post.

Camarota, along with Karen Zeigler, conducted the analysis of the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS), which is collected each month for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and notes that “foreign-born” includes anyone who was not a U.S. citizen at birth. Illegal immigrants are included in the CPS numbers, “although some do get missed,” according to Camarota.

“The increase of 2 million since January 2021 is all the more striking because, in order for the foreign-born population to grow at all, new arrivals must exceed voluntary return-migration, deportations, and natural mortality (deaths),” he writes. “Also keep in mind that births to immigrants in the US by definition add only to the native-born population. Even children born to illegal immigrants are awarded US citizenship.”

 

The total foreign-born population has increased in America in ways that Camarota describes as “nothing short of dramatic.”

“Since 2000, the total foreign-born population has grown by 50%,” he reports. “It has also doubled since 1990, tripled since 1980, and quintupled since 1970.”

Today, representing 14.3% of the population, one in seven people living in America was born elsewhere. Of those, roughly two-thirds are illegal immigrants or 1.4 million of the 2 million who have arrived since the start of the Biden administration.

“If present trends continue,” says Camarota, “the foreign-born share of the population will reach 14.9% by the end of next summer and continue to increase thereafter.”

“That’s higher than 1910, when the figure was 14.7%, and the highest percentage in our nation’s history,” he adds.

In fact, the analyst states, the number of new illegal immigrants now calling America home “must be even higher than 1.4 million.”

 

“This growth in the illegal immigrant population is vastly outpacing not only return migration, deportations, and deaths, as is true for the total foreign-born population, but also legalizations — for example, when an illegal immigrant is granted asylum or marries an American,” he explains.

If 1.4 million illegal immigrants sounds like a lot, keep in mind that three-fourths of the foreign-born are legal immigrants, and you start to see the scope of the problem.

Camarota cautions that America may simply be unable to handle this many immigrants, and American politicians on both sides of the aisle are not considering the impact on the nation’s infrastructure.

“Despite the record numbers, America’s political elites clamor for ever more immigration,” he writes. “Business-oriented Republicans and the leadership of the Democratic Party essentially want to give legal status to all those showing up at the border and amnesty to illegal immigrants already here.”

“They take this position without any meaningful consideration of the absorption capacity of our country, including our schools, health care system, welfare programs, infrastructure, and job market,” he warns, adding that “few in the political class ever even discuss how many people can be successfully assimilated.”

“The new numbers tell us that America is headed into uncharted territory,” Camarota states. “We have to decide as a country if we wish to go there.”

Melissa Fine

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