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Immigration to the United States has been a major source of population growth and cultural change throughout much of its history. In absolute numbers, the United States has by far the highest number of immigrants in the world, with 50,661,149 people as of 2019.^[1][2] This represents 19.1% of the 244 million international migrants worldwide, and 14.4% of the United States’ population. In 2018, there were almost 90 million immigrants and U.S.-born children of immigrants in the United States, accounting for 28% of the overall U.S. population.^[3]

According to the 2016 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics, the United States admitted a total of 1.18 million legal immigrants (618k new arrivals, 565k status adjustments) in 2016.^[4] Of these, 48% were the immediate relatives of United States citizens, 20% were family-sponsored, 13% were refugees or asylum seekers, 12% were employment-based preferences, 4.2% were part of the Diversity Immigrant Visa program, 1.4% were victims of a crime (U1) or their family members were (U2 to U5),^[5] and 1.0% who were granted the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) for Iraqis and Afghans employed by the United States Government.^[4] The remaining 0.4% included small numbers from several other categories, including 0.2% who were granted suspension of deportation as an immediate relative of a citizen (Z13);^[6] persons admitted under the Nicaraguan and Central American Relief Act; children born after the issuance of a parent’s visa; and certain parolees from the former Soviet Union, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam who were denied refugee status.^[4]

Between 1921 and 1965, policies such as the national origins formula limited immigration and naturalization opportunities for people from areas outside Northwestern Europe. Exclusion laws enacted as early as the 1880s generally prohibited or severely restricted immigration from Asia, and quota laws enacted in the 1920s curtailed Southern and Eastern European immigration. The civil rights movement led to the replacement^[7] of these ethnic quotas with per-country limits for family-sponsored and employment-based preference visas.^[8] Between 1970 and 2007, the number of first-generation immigrants living in the United States quadrupled from 9.6 million to 38.1 million residents.^[9][10] Census estimates show 45.3 million foreign born residents in the United States as of March 2018 and 45.4 million in September 2021, the lowest three-year increase in decades.^[11]

In 2017, out of the U.S. foreign-born population, some 45% (20.7 million) were naturalized citizens, 27% (12.3 million) were lawful permanent residents, 6% (2.2 million) were temporary lawful residents, and 23% (10.5 million) were unauthorized immigrants.^[12] The United States led the world in refugee resettlement for decades, admitting more refugees than the rest of the world combined.^[13]

Some research suggests that immigration is beneficial to the United States economy. With few exceptions, the evidence suggests that on average, immigration has positive economic effects on the native population, but it is mixed as to whether low-skilled immigration adversely affects low-skilled natives. Studies also show that immigrants have lower crime rates than natives in the United States.^[14][15][16] The economic, social, and political aspects of immigration have caused controversy regarding such issues as maintaining ethnic homogeneity, workers for employers versus jobs for non-immigrants, settlement patterns, impact on upward social mobility, crime, and voting behavior.

American immigration history can be viewed in four epochs: the colonial period, the mid-19th century, the start of the 20th century, and post-1965. Each period brought distinct national groups, races, and ethnicities to the United States.

During the 17th century, approximately 400,000 English people migrated to America under European colonization.^[17] They comprised 83.5% of the white population at the time of the first census in 1790.^[18] From 1700 to 1775, between 350,000 and 500,000 Europeans immigrated: estimates vary in sources. Regarding English settlers of the 18th century, one source says 52,000 English migrated during the period of 1701 to 1775, although this figure is likely too low.^[19][20] 400,000–450,000 of the 18th-century migrants were Scots, Scots-Irish from Ulster, Germans, Swiss, and French Huguenots.^[21] Over half of all European immigrants to Colonial America during the 17th and 18th centuries arrived as indentured servants.^[22] They numbered 350,000.^[23] From 1770 to 1775 (the latter year being when the American Revolutionary War began), 7,000 English, 15,000 Scots, 13,200 Scots-Irish, 5,200 Germans, and 3,900 Irish Catholics migrated to the Thirteen Colonies.^[24] According to Butler (2000), up to half of English migrants in the 18th century may have been young, single men who were well-skilled, trained artisans, like the Huguenots.^[25] Based on scholarly analysis, English was the largest single ancestry in all U.S. states at the time of the first census in 1790, ranging from a high of 82% in Massachusetts to a low of 35.3% in Pennsylvania, where Germans accounted for 33.3%.

The Census Bureau published preliminary estimates of the origins of the colonial American population by scholarly classification of the names of all White heads of families recorded in the 1790 census in a 1909 report entitled A Century of Population Growth.^[26] These initial estimates were scrutinized and rejected following passage of the Immigration Act of 1924, when the government required accurate official estimates of the origins of the colonial stock population as basis for computing National Origins Formula immigration quotas in the 1920s. In 1927, proposed quotas based on CPG figures were rejected by the President’s Committee chaired by the Secretaries of State, Commerce, and Labor, with the President reporting to Congress “the statistical and historical information available raises grave doubts as to the whole value of these computations as the basis for the purposes intended”.^[27] Concluding that CPG “had not been accepted by scholars as better than a first approximation of the truth”, an extensive scientific revision was produced, in collaboration with the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), as basis for computing contemporary legal immigration quotas.^[28] For this task scholars estimated the proportion of names of unique derivation from each of the major national stocks present in the population as of the 1790 census. The final results, later also published in the journal of the American Historical Association, are presented below:^[27]

Estimated Nationalities of the White American population in the Continental United States as of the 1790 Census^[27]

State or Territory	English[a]		Scotch		Scotch-Irish		Irish		German		Dutch		French		Swedish[b]		Spanish		Other		Total
	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%
Connecticut	155,598	67.0%	5,109	2.2%	4,180	1.8%	2,555	1.1%	697	0.3%	600	0.3%	2,100	0.9%	25	nil	−	–	61,372	26.4%	232,236
Delaware	27,786	60.0%	3,705	8.0%	2,918	6.3%	2,501	5.4%	509	1.1%	2,000	4.3%	750	1.6%	4,100	8.9%	−	–	2,041	4.4%	46,310
Georgia	30,357	57.4%	8,197	15.5%	6,082	11.5%	2,010	3.8%	4,019	7.6%	100	0.2%	1,200	2.3%	300	0.6%	−	–	621	1.2%	52,886
Kentucky &  Tennessee	53,874	57.9%	9,305	10.0%	6,513	7.0%	4,838	5.2%	13,026	14.0%	1,200	1.3%	2,000	2.2%	500	0.5%	−	–	1,790	1.9%	93,046
Maine	57,664	60.0%	4,325	4.5%	7,689	8.0%	3,556	3.7%	1,249	1.3%	100	0.1%	1,200	1.3%	−	–	−	–	20,324	21.2%	96,107
Maryland &  District of Columbia	134,579	64.5%	15,857	7.6%	12,102	5.8%	13,562	6.5%	24,412	11.7%	1,000	0.5%	2,500	1.2%	950	0.5%	−	–	3,687	1.8%	208,649
Massachusetts	306,013	82.0%	16,420	4.4%	9,703	2.6%	4,851	1.3%	1,120	0.3%	600	0.2%	3,000	0.8%	75	nil	−	–	31,405	8.4%	373,187
New Hampshire	86,078	61.0%	8,749	6.2%	6,491	4.6%	4,092	2.9%	564	0.4%	100	0.1%	1,000	0.7%	−	–	−	–	34,038	24.1%	141,112
New Jersey	79,878	47.0%	13,087	7.7%	10,707	6.3%	5,439	3.2%	15,636	9.2%	28,250	16.6%	4,000	2.4%	6,650	3.9%	−	–	6,307	3.7%	169,954
New York	163,470	52.0%	22,006	7.0%	16,033	5.1%	9,431	3.0%	25,778	8.2%	55,000	17.5%	12,000	3.8%	1,500	0.5%	−	–	9,148	2.9%	314,366
North Carolina	190,860	66.0%	42,799	14.8%	16,483	5.7%	15,616	5.4%	13,592	4.7%	800	0.3%	4,800	1.7%	700	0.2%	−	–	3,531	1.2%	289,181
Pennsylvania	149,451	35.3%	36,410	8.6%	46,571	11.0%	14,818	3.5%	140,983	33.3%	7,500	1.8%	7,500	1.8%	3,325	0.8%	−	–	16,815	4.0%	423,373
Rhode Island	45,916	71.0%	3,751	5.8%	1,293	2.0%	517	0.8%	323	0.5%	250	0.4%	500	0.8%	50	0.1%	−	–	12,070	18.7%	64,670
South Carolina	84,387	60.2%	21,167	15.1%	13,177	9.4%	6,168	4.4%	7,009	5.0%	500	0.4%	5,500	3.9%	325	0.2%	−	–	1,945	1.4%	140,178
Vermont	64,655	76.0%	4,339	5.1%	2,722	3.2%	1,616	1.9%	170	0.2%	500	0.6%	350	0.4%	−	–	−	–	10,720	12.6%	85,072
Virginia &  West Virginia	302,850	68.5%	45,096	10.2%	27,411	6.2%	24,316	5.5%	27,853	6.3%	1,500	0.3%	6,500	1.5%	2,600	0.6%	−	–	3,991	0.9%	442,117
1790 Census Area	1,933,416	60.9%	260,322	8.2%	190,075	6.0%	115,886	3.7%	276,940	8.7%	100,000	3.2%	54,900	1.7%	21,100	0.7%	−	–	219,805	6.9%	3,172,444
Northwest Territory	3,130	29.8%	428	4.1%	307	2.9%	190	1.8%	445	4.2%	−	–	6,000	57.1%	−	–	−	–	−	–	10,500
French America	2,240	11.2%	305	1.5%	220	1.1%	135	0.7%	1,750	8.8%	−	–	12,850	64.3%	−	–	2,500	12.5%	−	–	20,000
Spanish America	610	2.5%	83	0.4%	60	0.3%	37	0.2%	85	0.4%	−	–	−	–	−	–	23,125	96.4%	−	–	24,000
United States	1,939,396	60.1%	261,138	8.1%	190,662	5.9%	116,248	3.6%	279,220	8.7%	100,000	3.1%	73,750	2.3%	21,100	0.7%	25,625	0.8%	219,805	6.8%	3,226,944

Historians estimate that fewer than one million immigrants moved to the United States from Europe between 1600 and 1799.^[30] By comparison, in the first federal census, in 1790, the population of the United States was enumerated to be 3,929,214.^[31]

These statistics do not include the 17.8% of the population who were enslaved, according to the 1790 census.

The Naturalization Act of 1790 limited naturalization to “free white persons”; it was expanded to include black people in the 1860s and Asian people in the 1950s.^[32] This made the United States an outlier, since laws that made racial distinctions were uncommon in the world in the 18th century.^[33]

The 1794 Jay Treaty provided freedom of movement for Americans, British subjects, and Native Americans into British and American jurisdictions, Hudson’s Bay Company land excepted. The treaty is still in effect to the degree that it allows Native Americans born in Canada (subject to a blood quantum test) to enter the United States freely.^[34][35][36]

In the early years of the United States, immigration (not counting the enslaved, who were treated as merchandise rather than people) was fewer than 8,000 people a year,^[37] including French refugees from the slave revolt in Haiti. Legal importation of enslaved African was prohibited after 1808, though many were smuggled in to sell. After 1820, immigration gradually increased. From 1836 to 1914, over 30 million Europeans migrated to the United States.^[38]

After an initial wave of immigration from China following the California Gold Rush, Congress passed its first immigration law, the Page Act of 1875 which banned Chinese women.^[39] This was followed by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, banning virtually all immigration from China until the law’s repeal in 1943. In the late 1800s, immigration from other Asian countries, especially to the West Coast, became more common.

The peak year of European immigration was in 1907, when 1,285,349 persons entered the country.^[40] By 1910, 13.5 million immigrants were living in the United States.^[41]

While the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 had already excluded immigrants from China, the immigration of people from Asian countries in addition to China was banned by the Immigration Act of 1917, also known as the Asiatic Barred Zone Act, which also banned homosexuals, people with intellectual disability, and people with an anarchist worldview.^[42] The Emergency Quota Act was enacted in 1921, limiting immigration from the Eastern Hemisphere by national quotas equal to 3 percent of the number of foreign-born from each nation in the 1910 census. The Act aimed to further restrict immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, particularly Italian, Slavic, and Jewish people, who had begun to enter the country in large numbers beginning in the 1890s.^[43] The temporary quota system was superseded by the National Origins Formula of the Immigration Act of 1924, which computed national quotas as a fraction of 150,000 in proportion to the national origins of the entire White American population as of the 1920 census, except those having origins in the nonquota countries of the Western Hemisphere (which remained unrestricted).^[44][45]

The National Origins Formula was a unique computation which attempted to measure the total contributions of “blood” from each national origin as a share of the total stock of White Americans in 1920, counting immigrants, children of immigrants, and the grandchildren of immigrants (and later generations), in addition to estimating the colonial stock descended from the population who had immigrated in the colonial period and were enumerated in the 1790 census. European Americans remained predominant, although there were shifts toward Southern, Central, and Eastern Europe from immigration in the period 1790 to 1920. The formula determined that ancestry derived from Great Britain accounted for over 40% of the American gene pool, followed by German ancestry at 16%, then Irish ancestry at 11%. The restrictive immigration quota system established by the Immigration Act of 1924, revised and re-affirmed by the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, sought to preserve this demographic makeup of America by allotting quotas in proportion to how much blood each national origin had contributed to the total stock of the population in 1920, as presented below:^[28]

The White Population of the United States in 1920, apportioned according to the National Origins Formula prescribed by §11(c) of the Immigration Act of 1924. About 56.5% of White Americans were deemed to be of postcolonial immigrant stock as of 1920, while 43.5% were deemed colonial stock. Consequent immigration quotas in effect until 1965 were based upon these calculations.^[46]

European Americans in 1790 by nationality, estimated by classification of family names, according to a 1909 preliminary estimate in Census Bureau report A Century of Population Growth (top half) and revised figures according to a scientific study by the Census Bureau in collaboration with the American Council of Learned Societies commissioned in the 1920s (bottom half)^[26][27]

Immigration patterns of the 1930s were affected by the Great Depression. In the final prosperous year, 1929, there were 279,678 immigrants recorded,^[47] but in 1933, only 23,068 moved to the U.S.^[30] In the early 1930s, more people emigrated from the United States than to it.^[48] The U.S. government sponsored a Mexican Repatriation program which was intended to encourage people to voluntarily move to Mexico, but thousands were deported against their will.^[49] Altogether, approximately 400,000 Mexicans were repatriated; half of them were US citizens.^[50] Most of the Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazis and World War II were barred from coming to the United States.^[51] In the post-war era, the Justice Department launched Operation Wetback, under which 1,075,168 Mexicans were deported in 1954.^[52]

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, also known as the Hart–Celler Act, abolished the system of national-origin quotas. By equalizing immigration policies, the act resulted in new immigration from non-European nations, which changed the ethnic demographics of the United States.^[55] In 1970, 60% of immigrants were from Europe; this decreased to 15% by 2000.^[56]

The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Law of 1965 abolished the former quota system and gave preference to people with skills regarded as being “especially advantageous” to the United States, which resulted in an increase in immigration from Asia.^[57] In the 1980s, this accelerated as the Federal government of the United States encouraged the immigration of engineers, mathematicians, and scientists from Asia, particularly India and China, to help support STEM-related endeavors in the country.^[58] Skilled immigration from these countries was strengthened through the Immigration Act of 1990.^[59] The National Academy of Sciences has supported U.S. policymakers to design legislation that attracts foreign mathematicians, engineers and scientists to emigrate to the United States.^[60]

In 1986 president Ronald Reagan signed immigration reform that gave amnesty to 3 million undocumented immigrants in the country.^[61]

In 1990, George H. W. Bush signed the Immigration Act of 1990,^[62] which increased legal immigration to the United States by 40%.^[63] In 1991, Bush signed the Armed Forces Immigration Adjustment Act 1991, allowing foreign service members who had served 12 or more years in the US Armed Forces to qualify for permanent residency and, in some cases, citizenship.

In November 1994, California voters passed Proposition 187 amending the state constitution, denying state financial aid to illegal immigrants. The federal courts voided this change, ruling that it violated the federal constitution.^[64]

Appointed by President Bill Clinton,^[65] the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform recommended reducing legal immigration from about 800,000 people per year to approximately 550,000.^[66] While an influx of new residents from different cultures presents some challenges, “the United States has always been energized by its immigrant populations”, said President Bill Clinton in 1998. “America has constantly drawn strength and spirit from wave after wave of immigrants … They have proved to be the most restless, the most adventurous, the most innovative, the most industrious of people.”^[67]

In 2001, President George W. Bush discussed an accord with Mexican President Vicente Fox. Due to the September 11 attacks, the possible accord did not occur. From 2005 to 2013, the US Congress discussed various ways of controlling immigration. The Senate and House were unable to reach an agreement.^[64]

Nearly 8 million people immigrated to the United States from 2000 to 2005; 3.7 million of them entered without papers.^[68][69] Hispanic immigrants suffered job losses during the late-2000s recession,^[70] but since the recession’s end in June 2009, immigrants posted a net gain of 656,000 jobs.^[71]

Nearly 14 million immigrants entered the United States from 2000 to 2010,^[72] and over one million persons were naturalized as U.S. citizens in 2008. The per-country limit^[8] applies the same maximum on the number of visas to all countries regardless of their population and has therefore had the effect of significantly restricting immigration of persons born in populous nations such as Mexico, China, India, and the Philippines—the leading countries of origin for legally admitted immigrants to the United States in 2013;^[73] nevertheless, China, India, and Mexico were the leading countries of origin for immigrants overall to the United States in 2013, regardless of legal status, according to a U.S. Census Bureau study.^[74]

Over 1 million immigrants were granted legal residence in 2011.^[75]

For those who enter the US illegally across the Mexico–United States border and elsewhere, migration is difficult, expensive and dangerous.^[76] Virtually all undocumented immigrants have no avenues for legal entry to the United States due to the restrictive legal limits on green cards, and lack of immigrant visas for low-skilled workers.^[77] Participants in debates on immigration in the early 21st century called for increasing enforcement of existing laws governing illegal immigration to the United States, building a barrier along some or all of the 2,000-mile (3,200 km) Mexico-U.S. border, or creating a new guest worker program. Through much of 2006 the country and Congress was engaged in a debate about these proposals. As of April 2010 few of these proposals had become law, though a partial border fence had been approved and subsequently canceled.^[78]

Beginning with Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, presidents from both political parties have steadily increased the number of border patrol agents and instituted harsher punitive measures for immigration violations. Examples of these policies include Ronald Reagan’s Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 and the Clinton-era Prevention Through Deterrence strategy. The sociologist Douglas Massey has argued that these policies have succeeded at producing a perception of border enforcement but have largely failed at preventing emigration from Latin America. Notably, rather than curtailing illegal immigration, the increase in border patrol agents decreased circular migration across the U.S.–Mexico border, thus increasing the population of Hispanics in the U.S.^[79]

Presidents from both parties have employed anti-immigrant rhetoric to appeal to their political base or to garner bi-partisan support for their policies. While Republicans like Reagan and Donald Trump have led the way in framing Hispanic immigrants as criminals, Douglas Massey points out that “the current moment of open racism and xenophobia could not have happened with Democratic acquiescence”.^[80] For example, while lobbying for his 1986 immigration bill, Reagan framed unauthorized immigration as a “national security” issue and warned that “terrorists and subversives are just two days’ driving time” from the border.^[80] Later presidents, including Democrats Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, used similar “security” rhetoric in their efforts to court Republican support for comprehensive immigration reform. In his 2013 State of the Union Address, Obama said “real reform means strong border security, and we can build on the progress my administration has already made – putting more boots on the southern border than at any time in our history”.^[81]

ICE reports that it removed 240,255 immigrants in fiscal year 2016, as well as 226,119 in FY2017 and 256,085 in FY2018. Citizens of Central American countries (including Mexico) made up over 90% of removals in FY2017 and over 80% in FY2018.^[82]

In January 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order temporarily suspending entry to the United States by nationals of seven Muslim-majority countries. It was replaced by another executive order in March 2017 and by a presidential proclamation in September 2017, with various changes to the list of countries and exemptions.^[83] The orders were temporarily suspended by federal courts but later allowed to proceed by the Supreme Court, pending a definite ruling on their legality.^[84] Another executive order called for the immediate construction of a wall across the U.S.–Mexico border, the hiring of 5,000 new border patrol agents and 10,000 new immigration officers, and federal funding penalties for sanctuary cities.^[85]

The “zero-tolerance” policy was put in place in 2018, which legally allows children to be separated from adults unlawfully entering the United States. This is justified by labeling all adults that enter unlawfully as criminals, thus subjecting them to criminal prosecution.^[86] The Trump Administration also argued that its policy had precedent under the Obama Administration, which had opened family detention centers in response to migrants increasingly using children as a way to get adults into the country. However, the Obama Administration detained families together in administrative, rather than criminal, detention.^[87][88]

Other policies focused on what it means for an asylum seeker to claim credible fear.^[89] To further decrease the amount of asylum seekers into the United States, Attorney General Jeff Sessions released a decision that restricts those fleeing gang violence and domestic abuse as “private crime”, therefore making their claims ineligible for asylum.^[90] These new policies that had been put in place were controversial for putting the lives of the asylum seekers at risk, to the point that the ACLU sued Jeff Sessions along with other members of the Trump Administration. The ACLU claimed that the policies put in place by the Trump Administration undermined the fundamental human rights of those immigrating into the United States, specifically women. They also claimed that these policies violated decades of settle asylum law.^[91]

In April 2020, President Trump said he will sign an executive order to temporarily suspend immigration to the United States because of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.^[92][93]

In January 2023, regarding the Mexico–United States border crisis, Joe Biden announced a new immigration policy that would allow 30,000 migrants per month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela^[94] but will also expel the migrants from those countries who violate US laws of immigration.^[95] The policy has faced criticism from “immigration reform advocates and lawyers who decry any expansion of Title 42.”^[94]

On October 31, 2023, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testified before the Senate Homeland Security Committee that more than 600,000 people illegally made their way into the United States without being apprehended by border agents during the 2023 fiscal year.^[96][97]

In fiscal year 2022, over one million immigrants (most of whom entered through family reunification) were granted legal residence,^[98] up from 707,000 in 2020.^[99]

The 2024 Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act represents a change, in the immigration system with a focus, on strengthening border security and improving asylum processes. This bill, backed by both Republican senators and endorsed by President Biden seeks to address the surge in border crossings in the U.S. Mexico border by revolutionizing how migrants and asylum seekers are processed by border authorities. More specifically, asylum officers to consider certain bars to asylum during screening interviews, which were previously only considered by immigration judges. The legislation aims to streamline provisions for effective management.

The proposed law introduces an asylum procedure in the U.S. Border, where asylum officers from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) can review asylum applications at a more rapid pace. This new process, called removal proceedings, is detailed in a new section of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) specifically Section 235B.^[100] The bill sets a bar for passing an asylum screening by requiring a “reasonable possibility” standard instead of the previous “credible fear” standard. Requiring more evidence at the preliminary screening stages at the same level needed for a full hearing. Notably excluded apprehended individuals between ports of entry from asylum eligibility except under narrow exceptions.^[101] This adjustment makes it more difficult for asylum seekers to qualify for a hearing in front of an immigration judge and has raised questions in regards to potential violations against the right to seek asylum and due process.

Furthermore, the legislation establishes an emergency expulsion authority that empowers the branch to expel migrants and asylum seekers during times of ” extraordinary migration circumstances.” When the seven-day average of encounters between ports of entry exceeds 2,500, the restrictions come into effect.^[102] The restrictions continue until the average falls below 1,500 for 14 consecutive days. If this occurs the DHS Secretary can promptly send migrants back to their home country unless they can prove they face a risk of persecution or torture.

The proposed legislation involves around $18.3 billion in funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to carry out the border policies and changes in the asylum process. Moreover, it designates $2.3 billion to support arrived refugees through the “Refugee and Entrant Assistance” program.^[100] The program itself is designed to fund a broad range of social services to newly arrived refugees, both through states and direct service grants. The bill outlines provisions for granting status to allies safeguarding most “Documented Dreamers ” and issuing an additional 250,000 immigrant visas.^[103] It introduces a program for repatriation enabling asylum seekers to go to their home countries at any point during the proceedings. The proposed legislation also contains clauses that do not affect the humanitarian parole initiatives of the Biden administration, for individuals from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua.^[104] These individuals are granted approval to travel and a temporary period of parole in the United States.

Note: “Other Latin America” includes Central America, South America and the Caribbean.

Refugee numbers

According to the Department of State, in the 2016 fiscal year 84,988 refugees were accepted into the US from around the world. In the fiscal year of 2017, 53,691 refugees were accepted to the US. There was a significant decrease after Trump took office; it continued in the fiscal year of 2018 when only 22,405 refugees were accepted into the US. This displays a massive drop in acceptance of refugees since the Trump Administration has been in place.^{[111][original research?]}

On September 26, 2019, the Trump administration announced that it planned to allow only 18,000 refugees to resettle in the United States in the 2020 fiscal year, its lowest level since the modern program began in 1980.^{[112][113][114][115]}

In 2020 the Trump administration announced that it planned to slash refugee admissions to U.S. for 2021 to a record low of 15,000 refugees down from a cap of 18,000 for 2020, making 2021 the fourth consecutive year of declining refugee admissions under the Trump term.^{[116][117][118]}

The Biden administration pledged to welcome 125,000 refugees in 2024.^[119]

As of 2018, approximately half of immigrants living in the United States are from Mexico and other Latin American countries.^[122] Many Central Americans are fleeing because of desperate social and economic circumstances in their countries. Some believe that the large number of Central American refugees arriving in the United States can be explained as a “blowback” to policies such as United States military interventions and covert operations that installed or maintained in power authoritarian leaders allied with wealthy land owners and multinational corporations who stop family farming and democratic efforts, which have caused drastically sharp social inequality, wide-scale poverty and rampant crime.^[123] Economic austerity dictated by neoliberal policies imposed by the International Monetary Fund and its ally, the U.S., has also been cited as a driver of the dire social and economic conditions, as has the U.S. “War on Drugs“, which has been understood as fueling murderous gang violence in the region.^[124] Another major migration driver from Central America (Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador) are crop failures, which are (partly) caused by climate change.^{[125][126][127][128]} “The current debate … is almost totally about what to do about immigrants when they get here. But the 800-pound gorilla that’s missing from the table is what we have been doing there that brings them here, that drives them here”, according to Jeff Faux, an economist who is a distinguished fellow at the Economic Policy Institute.

Until the 1930s most legal immigrants were male. By the 1990s women accounted for just over half of all legal immigrants.^[129] Contemporary immigrants tend to be younger than the native population of the United States, with people between the ages of 15 and 34 substantially overrepresented.^[130] Immigrants are also more likely to be married and less likely to be divorced than native-born Americans of the same age.^[131]

Immigrants are likely to move to and live in areas populated by people with similar backgrounds. This phenomenon has remained true throughout the history of immigration to the United States.^[132] Seven out of ten immigrants surveyed by Public Agenda in 2009 said they intended to make the U.S. their permanent home, and 71% said if they could do it over again they would still come to the US. In the same study, 76% of immigrants say the government has become stricter on enforcing immigration laws since the September 11 attacks (“9/11”), and 24% report that they personally have experienced some or a great deal of discrimination.^[133]

Public attitudes about immigration in the U.S. were heavily influenced in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. After the attacks, 52% of Americans believed that immigration was a good thing overall for the U.S., down from 62% the year before, according to a 2009 Gallup poll.^[134] A 2008 Public Agenda survey found that half of Americans said tighter controls on immigration would do “a great deal” to enhance U.S. national security.^[135] Harvard political scientist and historian Samuel P. Huntington argued in his 2004 book Who Are We? The Challenges to America’s National Identity that a potential future consequence of continuing massive immigration from Latin America, especially Mexico, could lead to the bifurcation of the United States.^[136][137]

The estimated population of illegal Mexican immigrants in the US decreased from approximately 7 million in 2007 to 6.1 million in 2011^[138] Commentators link the reversal of the immigration trend to the economic downturn that started in 2008 and which meant fewer available jobs, and to the introduction of tough immigration laws in many states.^{[139][140][141][142]} According to the Pew Hispanic Center, the net immigration of Mexican born persons had stagnated in 2010, and tended toward going into negative figures.^[143]

More than 80 cities in the United States,^[144] including Washington D.C., New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, San Diego, San Jose, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Detroit, Jersey City, Minneapolis, Denver, Baltimore, Seattle, Portland, Oregon and Portland, Maine, have sanctuary policies, which vary locally.^[145]

Inflow of New Legal Permanent Residents by region, 2015–2022

Region	2015	% of total	2016	% of total	2017	% of total	2018[107]	% of total	2019[108]	% of total	2020[109]	% of total	2021[146]	% of total	2022[146]	% of total	/% in 2022
Americas	438,435	41.7%	506,901	42.8%	492,726	43.7%	497,860	45.4%	461,710	44.8%	284,491	40.2%	311,806	42.1%	431,697	42.4%	27.8%
Asia	419,297	39.9%	462,299	39.1%	424,743	37.7%	397,187	36.2%	364,761	35.4%	272,597	38.5%	295,306	39.9%	414,951	40.7%	28.8%
Africa	101,415	9.7%	113,426	9.6%	118,824	10.5%	115,736	10.6%	111,194	10.8%	76,649	10.8%	66,211	8.9%	89,571	8.8%	26.1%
Europe	85,803	8.2%	93,567	7.9%	84,335	7.5%	80,024	7.3%	87,597	8.5%	68,994	9.8%	61,521	8.3%	75,606	7.4%	18.6%
Oceania	5,404	0.5%	5,588	0.5%	5,071	0.5%	4,653	0.4%	5,359	0.5%	3,998	0.6%	4,147	0.6%	5,132	0.5%	19.2%
Unknown	677	0.1%	1,724	0.1%	1,468	0.1%	1,151	0.1%	1,144	0.1%	633	>0.1%	1,011	0.1%	1,392	0.1%	≈
Total	1,051,031	100%	1,183,505	100%	1,127,167	100%	1,096,611	100%	1,031,765	100%	707,632	100%	740,002	100%	1,018,349	100%	27.3%

Source: US Department of Homeland Security, Office of Immigration Statistics^{[146][147][148][149][150]}

• 2010,^[155] 2017,^[156] 2018^[157][158]

The United States admitted more legal immigrants from 1991 to 2000, between ten and eleven million, than in any previous decade. In the most recent decade,^[when?] the 10 million legal immigrants that settled in the U.S. represent roughly one third of the annual growth, as the U.S. population increased by 32 million (from 249 million to 281 million). By comparison, the highest previous decade was the 1900s, when 8.8 million people arrived, increasing the total U.S. population by one percent every year. Specifically, “nearly 15% of Americans were foreign-born in 1910, while in 1999, only about 10% were foreign-born”.^[159]

By 1970, immigrants accounted for 4.7 percent of the US population and rising to 6.2 percent in 1980, with an estimated 12.5 percent in 2009.^[160] As of 2010, 25% of US residents under age 18 were first- or second-generation immigrants.^[161] Eight percent of all babies born in the U.S. in 2008 belonged to illegal immigrant parents, according to a recent^[when?] analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by the Pew Hispanic Center.^[162]

Legal immigration to the U.S. increased from 250,000 in the 1930s, to 2.5 million in the 1950s, to 4.5 million in the 1970s, and to 7.3 million in the 1980s, before becoming stable at about 10 million in the 1990s.^[163] Since 2000, legal immigrants to the United States number approximately 1,000,000 per year, of whom about 600,000 are Change of Status who already are in the U.S. Legal immigrants to the United States now^[when?] are at their highest level ever, at just over 37,000,000 legal immigrants. In reports in 2005–2006, estimates of illegal immigration ranged from 700,000 to 1,500,000 per year.^[164][165] Immigration led to a 57.4% increase in foreign-born population from 1990 to 2000.^[166]

Foreign-born immigration has caused the U.S. population to continue its rapid increase with the foreign-born population doubling from almost 20 million in 1990 to over 47 million in 2015.^[167] In 2018, there were almost 90 million immigrants and U.S.-born children of immigrants (second-generation Americans) in the United States, accounting for 28% of the overall U.S. population.^[168]

While immigration has increased drastically over the 20th century, the foreign-born share of the population is, at 13.4, only somewhat below what it was at its peak in 1910 at 14.7%. A number of factors may be attributed to the decrease in the representation of foreign-born residents in the United States. Most significant has been the change in the composition of immigrants; prior to 1890, 82% of immigrants came from North and Western Europe. From 1891 to 1920, that number decreased to 25%, with a rise in immigrants from East, Central, and South Europe, summing up to 64%. Animosity towards these ethnically different immigrants increased in the United States, resulting in much legislation to limit immigration in the 20th century.^[169]

Country of birth for foreign-born population in the United States (1960–2015)

Country of birth	2015[note 1]	2010[note 2]	2000[172][173]	1990[174][173]	1980[175][173]	1970[175]	1960[176][173]
Mexico	11,513,528	11,599,653	9,177,487	4,298,014	2,199,221	759,711	575,902
India	2,348,687	1,837,838	1,022,552	450,406	206,087	51,000	N/A[a]
China[b]	2,034,383	1,583,634	988,857	529,837	286,120	172,132	N/A[a]
Philippines	1,945,345	1,810,537	1,369,070	912,674	501,440	184,842	104,843[c]
El Salvador	1,323,592	1,201,972	817,336	465,433	94,447[d]	N/A[a]	6,310[c]
Vietnam	1,314,927	1,231,716	988,174	543,262	231,120	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Cuba	1,227,031	1,057,346	872,716	736,971	607,184	439,048	79,150[c]
South Korea[e]	1,064,960	1,085,151	864,125	568,397	289,885	38,711	N/A[a]
Dominican Republic	1,057,439	866,618	687,677	347,858	169,147	61,228	11,883[c]
Guatemala	923,562	822,947	480,665	225,739	63,073[d]	N/A[a]	5,381[c]
Canada	818,441	808,772	820,771	744,830	842,859	812,421	952,506
Jamaica	727,634	671,197	553,827	334,140	196,811	68,576	N/A[a]
Colombia	723,561	648,594	509,872	286,124	143,508[d]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
United Kingdom[f]	696,048	685,938	677,751	640,145	669,149	686,099	833,058
Haiti	643,341	572,896	419,317	225,393	92,395[d]	N/A[a]	4,816[c]
Honduras	603,179	502,827	282,852	108,923	39,154[d]	N/A[a]	6,503[c]
Germany	577,282	617,070	706,704	711,929	849,384	832,965	989,810
Peru	447,223	419,363	278,186	144,199	55,496[d]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Ecuador	437,581	428,747	298,626	143,314	86,128[d]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Poland	422,208	450,537	466,742	388,328	418,128	548,107	747,750
Russia	391,974	391,101	340,177	333,725	406,022	463,462	690,598[g]
Iran (Incl. Kurdistan)	377,741	353,169	283,226	210,941	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Taiwan	376,666	365,981	326,215	244,102	75,353[d]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Brazil	373,058	332,250	212,428	82,489	40,919[d]	N/A[a]	13,988[c]
Pakistan	371,400	301,280	223,477	91,889	30,774[d]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Italy	348,216	368,699	473,338	580,592	831,922	1,008,533	1,256,999
Japan	346,887	334,449	347,539	290,128	221,794	120,235	109,175[c]
Ukraine	344,565	324,216	275,153	N/A[h]	N/A[h]	N/A[h]	N/A[h]
Nigeria	298,532	221,077	134,940	55,350	25,528[d]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Guyana	274,118	257,272	211,189	120,698	48,608[d]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Venezuela	265,282	182,342	107,031	42,119	33,281[d]	N/A[a]	6,851[c]
Nicaragua	252,196	250,186	220,335	168,659	44,166[d]	N/A[a]	9,474[c]
Thailand	247,614	224,576	169,801	106,919	54,803[d]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Trinidad and Tobago	234,483	231,678	197,398	115,710	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Hong Kong	228,316	216,948	203,580	147,131	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Ethiopia	226,159	164,046	69,531	34,805	7,516[d]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Bangladesh	221,275	166,513	95,294	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Iraq	212,608	148,673	89,892	44,916	32,121[d]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Laos	188,385	192,469	204,284	171,577	54,881[d]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Argentina	187,052	170,120	125,218	92,563	68,887[d]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Egypt[i]	179,157	143,086	113,396	66,313	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Portugal	175,555	186,142	203,119	210,122	177,437	91,034	N/A[a]
France[j]	175,198	157,577	151,154	119,233	120,215	105,385	N/A[a]
Cambodia	159,827	156,508	136,978	118,833	20,175[d]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Ghana	158,999	120,785	65,572	20,889	7,564[d]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Romania	158,033	163,431	135,966	91,106	66,994[d]	N/A[a]	84,575[c]
Myanmar	137,190	89,553	32,588[k]	19,835[k]	11,236[k]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Greece	134,654	136,914	165,750	177,398	210,998	177,275	159,167[c]
Israel[l]	134,172	133,074	109,719	86,048	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Kenya	126,209	95,126	40,682[m]	14,371[d]	6,250[d]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Ireland	124,411	128,496	156,474	169,827	197,817	251,375	338,722
Lebanon	120,620	119,523	105,910	86,369	52,674[d]	N/A[a]	22,217[c]
Nepal	119,640	63,948	11,715[m]	2,262[d]	844[d]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Turkey	113,937	102,242	78,378	55,087	51,915[d]	N/A[a]	52,228[c]
Spain	109,712	86,683	82,858	76,415	73,735[d]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Bosnia and Herzegovina	105,657	115,600	98,766	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Panama	103,715	104,080	105,177	85,737	60,740[d]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
South Africa	99,323	83,298	63,558	34,707	16,103[d]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Chile	97,391	92,948	80,804	55,681	35,127[d]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Indonesia	96,158	92,555	72,552	48,387	29,920[d]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Somalia	92,807	N/A[a]	35,760[m]	2,437[d]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Saudi Arabia	90,836	48,916	21,083[m]	12,632	17,317[d]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Syria[n]	88,226	64,240	54,561	36,782	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	16,717[o]
Armenia	86,727	80,972	65,280	N/A[h]	N/A[h]	N/A[h]	N/A[h]
Australia	86,447	74,478	60,965	42,267	36,120[d]	N/A[a]	22,209[c]
Costa Rica	86,186	83,034	71,870	43,350	29,639[d]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Albania	85,406	77,091	38,663[m]	5,627[d]	7,381[d]	9,180[d]	9,618[d]
Netherlands[p]	84,579	85,096	94,570	96,198	103,136	110,570	118,415[c]
Liberia	83,221	71,062	39,029[m]	11,455[d]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Afghanistan	79,298	60,314	45,195	28,444	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Morocco[q]	74,009	58,728	34,682[m]	15,541	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Malaysia	72,878	58,095	49,459	33,834	10,473[d]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Jordan[r]	72,662	60,912	46,794	31,871	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Bulgaria	68,658	61,931	35,090[m]	8,579[d]	8,463[d]	N/A[a]	8,223[c]
Hungary	67,594	75,479	92,017	110,337	144,368	183,236	245,252
Former Czechoslovakia	67,241	70,283	83,031	87,020	112,707	160,899	227,622
Belarus	59,501	54,575	38,503	N/A[h]	N/A[h]	N/A[h]	N/A[h]
Uzbekistan	56,275	47,664	23,029[m]	N/A[h]	N/A[h]	N/A[h]	N/A[h]
Barbados	54,131	51,764	52,172	43,015	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Sri Lanka	50,819	43,568	25,263[m]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Cameroon	50,646	N/A[a]	11,765[m]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Belize	49,432	46,717	40,151[m]	29,957	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	2,780[s]
Uruguay	47,933	47,254	25,038[m]	20,766	13,278[d]	N/A[a]	1,170[c]
Yemen	47,664	38,627	19,210[m]	3,093[d]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Sweden	47,190	45,856	49,724	53,676	77,157	127,070	214,491
Austria	46,167	49,465	63,648	87,673	145,607	214,014	304,507
Fiji	45,354	39,921	30,890[m]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Moldova	42,388	34,081	19,507[m]	N/A[h]	N/A[h]	N/A[h]	N/A[h]
Sudan	41,081	40,740	19,790[m]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Cape Verde	39,836	34,678	26,606[m]	14,368	10,457[d]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Switzerland	39,203	38,872	43,106[m]	39,130	42,804[d]	N/A[a]	61,568[c]
Croatia	38,854	44,002	40,908[m]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Eritrea	38,657	27,148	17,518[m]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Sierra Leone	38,257	34,588	20,831	7,217[d]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Serbia	36,244	30,509	10,284[m]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Belgium	35,077	31,938	33,895[m]	34,366	36,487[d]	N/A[a]	50,294[c]
Lithuania	34,334	36,317	28,490[m]	29,745	N/A[h]	N/A[h]	121,475
Grenada	34,041	30,291	29,272[m]	17,730	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Bahamas	32,962	31,095	28,076[m]	21,633	13,993[d]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Singapore	32,748	29,173	20,762[m]	12,889[d]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Dominica	31,007	29,883	15,639[m]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Kuwait	30,522	24,373	20,367[m]	8,889[d]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Denmark	29,045	29,964	31,422[m]	34,999	42,732[d]	N/A[a]	85,060[c]
Kazakhstan	28,512	24,169	9,154[m]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Azores	26,022	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Norway	24,583	26,207	32,207[m]	42,240	63,316[d]	N/A[a]	152,698
North Macedonia	24,529	23,645	18,680[m]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Latvia	22,983	23,763	27,232[m]	N/A[h]	N/A[h]	N/A[h]	N/A[h]
St. Vincent and the Grenadines	22,898	21,478	19,984[m]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]	N/A[a]
Finland	N/A	N/A	21,408[m]	22,313[d]	29,172[d]	N/A	67,624
Luxembourg	N/A	N/A	2,150[m]	2,053[d]	3,125[d]	3,531[d]	4,360[d]
Iceland	N/A	N/A	5,553[m]	5,071[d]	4,156[d]	2,895[d]	2,780[d]
Foreign-Born Population	43,027,453	39,784,145	31,107,889	19,767,316	14,079,906	9,619,302	9,738,155