by David Kelly
The total foreign-born or immigrant population in the United States was a record 49.5 million in October 2023, according to a Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) report that cited the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS). The data included an estimated “4.5 million increase since President Biden took office.”
“At 15 percent, the foreign-born share of the U.S. population is also the highest ever recorded in American history. As the debate rages over the ongoing border crisis, this finding is important because administrative numbers such as border encounters or even legal immigrant arrivals do not measure the actual size of the immigrant population, which is what ultimately determines immigration’s impact on the country,” stated the CIS report.
The estimated percentage of foreign-born residents is most likely low, as, according to the CIS, government reporting is not yet available to properly estimate illegal immigration through October 2023. The CIS testified to a House committee on the open border in September, saying then that the illegal population grew from 10.2 million in January 2021 to 12.6 million by May 2023.
“Given the ongoing border crisis we have no reason to believe that things have changed significantly since May. If that is correct, then about 2.5 million of the 4.5 million increase in the foreign-born in the CPS from January 2021 to October 2023 is due to illegal immigration. This number is unadjusted for undercount of illegal immigrants in the CPS. If adjusted, it could mean the illegal population was 12.8 million in October of this year, up from 10.2 million (undercount adjusted) in January 2021,” noted the CIS report.
Earlier this month the Census Bureau put out new projections for the U.S. population through 2100. The CIS questioned the government data, as the Census Bureau’s 2023 projections reported a “total foreign-born population of 47.05 million — which is 2.5 million below what the October 2023 CPS shows.” Also, those “projections show that the foreign-born share of the U.S. population was not supposed to hit 15 percent until 2033, and the total number was not supposed to hit 49.5 million until 2027 or 2028.”
The old record of foreign-born or immigrant population in the U.S. was 14.8 percent, set 133 years ago, in 1890. According to the CIS, “the immigrant share of the population has more than tripled since 1970 and nearly doubled since 1990. The number of immigrants has increased five-fold since 1970, 2.5 times since 1990, and is up 59 percent since 2000.”
The record number of illegals points to the rapid increase in border encounters and got-aways, and demonstrates President Biden’s utter lack of effort to protect the nation’s states from the “invasion” of illegals.
And the current percentage of foreign-born people in the U.S. will only grow. The CIS report shared a graph that projected the foreign-born population to the “end of a hypothetical Biden second term using a linear model based on trends since he took office in January 2021.”
It shows that the foreign-born would reach 51.3 million and 15.5 percent of the total [United States] population by the end of his first term in December 2024. If present trends are allowed to continue, the total number of immigrants would reach 58.9 million and 17.3 percent of the total population by the end of a second Biden term. These numbers and percentages are, of course, all new record highs. If this happens it would mean that during his eight years, the foreign-born population would grow by 14 million — much of it illegal. This would exceed even the 11.1 million increase in the 10 years between 1990 and 2000, which is the largest numerical intercensal increase in the foreign-born population ever.
The CIS report of the record increase in immigrants in the United States highlights that our immigration system is broken; the border crisis is now and will continue to be a serious threat to our nation’s infrastructure and ability to assimilate this unprecedented growth. President Biden and Congress must take immediate action to end the border crisis, or their constituents will have to face the unknown and potentially dire consequences of their inaction.
