Pew: U.S. immigration declined over last year

Sept. 1 (UPI) — New government data is outlining how President Donald Trump’s U.S. immigration crackdown is impacting the job market.

The number of U.S.-based migrant workers, data released August 21 by the Washington-based think tank Pew says, declined by 1.2 million from January through July, according to Pew-analyzed data out of the U.S Census Bureau in figures including non-legal and legal residents.

“It’s unclear how much of the decline we’ve seen since January is due to voluntary departures to pursue other opportunities or avoid deportation, removals, underreporting or other technical issues,” Stephanie Kramer, a Pew senior researcher, told CBS News.

Pew said from 2021 to 2023 there was a 13% bump in migrants via South America.

“However, we don’t believe that the preliminary numbers indicating net-negative migration are so far off that the decline isn’t real.”

It also pointed specifically to the four specific states of California, Louisiana, Florida and New York, where most of America’s more than 51 million immigrants in recent years have lived.

Economic experts predict that a drop in workforce participation could see ripple effects through the already-strained U.S. labor market.

But Pew said the caveat to a reversal in immigration means the total number of unauthorized migrants likely decreased “due in part to increased deportations and reduced protections under the Trump administration.”

According to Pew’s research estimates, the overall number of people in the country illegally peaked in 2023 at around 14 million people.

Pew officials pointed to specific U.S. policy changes starting mid-last year that they say affected America’s immigrant population.

Pew said then-President Joe Biden’s restrictions on new asylum seekers last June, in addition to Trump’s first 100 days back in the White House and flurry of 181 executive orders on immigration, culminated in a “sharp decline” in immigration issues.