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Washington, D.C. (November 19, 2019) – A new analysis from the Center for Immigration Studies shows 1.45 million new legal and illegal immigrants settled in the United States in 2017, less than the 1.75 million in 2016 or the 1.62 million in 2015. The decline in arrivals in 2017 may be due to the increased enforcement efforts, lower refugee admissions, and more robust vetting of applicants undertaken by the Trump administration. The analysis is based on newly released data from the Census Bureau's 2018 American Community Survey (ACS), which allows for a more detailed look at the nation's demographics than last month's more generalized ACS information.
"New arrivals fell in 2017, but the number coming remains very high at nearly 1.5 million a year," said Steven Camarota the Center's Director of Research and co-author of the analysis. "Moreover, the falloff may be temporary, as this data does not reflect the dramatic surge in illegal immigrant families and unaccompanied minors apprehended at the southern border and released into the country in 2018 and 2019."
Highlights:
• Newly released data from the 2018 American Community Survey (ACS) shows 1.45 million immigrants (legal and illegal) arrived in 2017. This may indicate an end to the post-2011 surge in new arrivals. Between 2011 and 2016, the number of new immigrants arriving annually increased steadily from 1.08 million immigrants to 1.75 million immigrants. (Figure 1)
• While lower than in 2016 and 2015, the 1.45 million immigrants who came in 2017 roughly match the level in 2014 and was higher than any year between 2002 to 2013. (Figure 1)
• The decline in new arrivals was very broad, impacting ever major sending region. As a result, the relative shares that each region accounted for held roughly constant between 2016 and 2017. (Figure 2, Table 1)
• As was the case in 2016, Latin America (37 percent) was the top sending region, accounting for a slightly larger share of new immigrants than East and South Asia (36 percent) combined. East and South Asia accounted for the largest share of new immigrants from 2010 to 2015.3 (Figure 2, Table 1)
• While the number of arrivals in 2017 from every region was lower than in two prior years, the number coming from just about every part of the world was still higher in 2017 than it was between 2002 and 2013. (Figure 2, Table 1)
• Data for the first six months of 2018 indicates that the number of new arrivals may be similar to 2017, however this number is only preliminary. (Figure 1)
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