The foreign-born population in the United States exploded by millions under Joe Biden.
After all, he imposed essentially open borders practices that allow just about anyone who could walk across the border a place at the public benefits table, and even encouraged foreigners who lived thousands of miles from America’s borders to come.
But under President Donald Trump’s secure border agenda, that population already is down by 1.5 million, the first time that has happened in more than half a century, the 1960s, according to Pew Research.
The report actually noted that the number of immigrants living in the U.S. reached a record high of 53.3 million in January 2025, just as Joe Biden was packing his things to move out of the White House.
Pew also revealed that the number of noncitizens in the U.S. illegally reached a record high of 14 million in 2023.
A report at the Center Square noted that the months after Biden left show “a decline of nearly 1.5 million.”
“A nationwide crackdown on immigration has been a central part of Trump’s second-term policy agenda. He has signed 181 executive orders relating to immigration since returning to the White House in January. The administration has implemented its immigration policies through mass deportations of noncitizens, incentivizing self deportations, heightened security at the U.S.’s southwestern border and by toughening up student visa requirements,” the report explained.
It’s all made a difference as the percent of the U.S. population made up of immigrants shrunk to 15.4% in June from 15.8% in January.
Pew’s own report documented that, “The U.S. unauthorized immigrant population likely continued to increase rapidly through at least mid-2024, reaching new highs, according to available government data. Growth continued in the second half of 2024 at a much slower pace and may have stopped entirely as inflows dropped dramatically due to Biden administration policy changes.”
“From January to June 2025, the unauthorized immigrant population likely declined, possibly by as much as 1 million. However, as of July 2025, the unauthorized immigrant population almost surely remains higher than in July 2023, when we estimated that the population stood at 14 million,” it reported.
The reasons then were stated: “From July 2023 through June 2024, more than 2.1 million immigrants were released or paroled into the U.S. These groups are considered a part of the unauthorized immigrant population. The largest group, U.S. Border Patrol releases, accounted for more than 1.1 million new arrivals of unauthorized immigrants. Another 1 million were paroled into the U.S. at the southwestern border and through the CHNV (Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela) and U4U (Uniting for Ukraine) parole programs.”
“The large inflows imply continued, rapid growth past our 14 million estimate for mid-2023,” it said.
The “slowdown” followed in mid-2024 when Biden changed his policies, as about 400,000 migrants were released or paroled into the U.S. during the last half of the year.
“The main reduction came from a change in practice by the Border Patrol, which released many fewer migrants into the U.S., about 60,000, during these six months, compared with more than 1.1 million during the preceding 12 months. In addition, the Biden administration stopped admitting migrants under the CHNV parole program in August 2024. Only about 35,000 were admitted after July 2024, which was about 10% of the total from the previous 12 months. By November 2024, there were no CHNV paroles.”
The report noted during 2021-2023, during Biden’s time of office, “unauthorized” immigrants grew significantly, with an all-time high of 14 million in 2023.
Biden’s plans to offer various protections to illegal aliens were the key, the report said.
“The increase from 2021 to 2023 was driven primarily by growth in the number of unauthorized immigrants who were living in the U.S. with some protections from deportation, such as immigrants paroled into the country and asylum seekers. About 6 million immigrants without full legal status had some protection from deportation in 2023, up from 2.7 million in 2021. In 2007, when the total unauthorized immigrant population was at its previous high (12.2 million), about 500,000 had some protection from deportation,” Pew said.
Trump’s work to increase deportations and eliminate special protections has worked during 2025 to turn the trend in the numbers around.
The report pointed out four “parole” programs pushed by Biden as reasons for the number of immigrants coming to the U.S. having “significantly increased.”
Those are his Operation Allies Welcome program for Afghanis, United for Ukraine for Ukrainians, parole processes for those from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, and the Office of Field Operations paroles.