President Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to target illegal immigration and deport undocumented immigrants. But, according to an analysis from the Libertarian think tank Cato Institute, the largest impact in Trump’s second term has been to legal immigrants.
The analysis uses government data, spanning asylum and refugee admissions to work visas and international students.
Report author David Bier says illegal immigration was significantly down even before Trump took office due to Biden-era crackdowns at the border.
His analysis shows that since last January, the number of refugees admitted to the U.S. has dropped by 90%, and bans on nationals from dozens of countries has led the number of immigrant visas to be roughly cut in half.
“By virtually every category, from high skill to low skill, to family, to employment, whatever you’re talking about — refugees, humanitarian entries — all of it is down by a significant amount,” Bier said. “And if you add it all up, the immigration cuts to legal immigration, constitute about 72% of the total cuts to immigration under this administration.”
In other words, Bier says, legal immigration has been cut twice as much as illegal immigration.
He says the impact of those changes will be felt for years to come — as processing backlogs increase visa wait times and foreign workers struggle to keep their status.
-
A federal judge is once again weighing whether to intervene on behalf of a former Phoenix police sergeant fired for his behavior at an anti-ICE student protest in January. -
Audiences on each side of the U.S.-Mexico border watched the same movie just feet from each other during the Film on the Fence event. -
Jerod MacDonald-Evoy, a reporter for the Arizona Mirror, found use-of-force incidents at Arizona ICE facilities — including a pepper spray incident at Phoenix Mesa Gateway Airport — are up 333%. -
Pinal County Attorney Brad Miller overstepped his authority by entering a partnership with federal immigration authorities, a Maricopa County Superior Court Judge ruled Friday. -
The Maricopa County Medical Examiner determined that a Haitian man’s death while in ICE custody was caused by a severe infection related to dental issues. That comes after the man’s family accused immigration agents of failing to provide proper treatment for a toothache.
