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A new report by the Pew Research Center shows that the unauthorized immigrant population in the U.S. soared to an all-time high of 14 million in 2023 in the middle of the Biden administration.
Released this week, the study shows that the unauthorized immigrant population reached an “all-time high” of 14 million in 2023 after two consecutive years of record growth in 2021 and 2022.
According to Pew, the number of unauthorized immigrants present in the country increased from 10.2 million in 2020 to 10.5 million in 2021 and 11.8 million in 2022.
Pew said the increase of 3.5 million unauthorized immigrants in two years is the biggest on record.
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The next highest number of unauthorized immigrants recorded in a year was in 2007, with 12.2 million.
Further, Pew reported that though 2023 is the most recent year with comprehensive data available, preliminary data indicate continued growth in 2024 and a decrease in 2025, coinciding with the end of former President Joe Biden’s term and the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term.
Pew posits that the decline in unauthorized immigrants could be as many as 1 million, which it attributes in part to increased deportations and reduced protections under the Trump administration. Nonetheless, the center said that the unauthorized immigrant population likely remains above 2023 levels.
The study defines an unauthorized immigrant as an immigrant who is not a naturalized citizen, lawful permanent resident, refugee, asylee, temporary legal resident or former unauthorized immigrants granted legal residence under the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act.
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Of the 14 million total unauthorized immigrants, Pew said 6 million have some type of protection from deportation, while 8 million do not. Pew said those with some protection from deportation are aliens who are asylum applicants, have temporary immigration parole, are victims of crimes, have temporary protective status or are Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) recipients or border releases.
Simon Hankinson, a senior research fellow at the Border and Immigration Center at the Heritage Foundation, commented on the study, saying it “shows the scope of the illegal immigration disaster President Biden created and which President Trump is now trying to clean up.”
“Biden’s massive abuse of immigration parole, release of aliens caught entering illegally at the border and shackling of enforcement ballooned the number of people living here illegally to record proportions,” he added.
Besides unauthorized immigrants, Hankinson said the percentage of foreign-born residents in the U.S. is the highest in the country’s history at nearly 16 percent. He posited that “without assimilation and integration,” these levels of immigration “are socially and fiscally unsustainable.”
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On the other end of the spectrum, Hankinson commented that the report shows “what can be achieved with the right policies.”
“In only six months, they estimate that over a million ‘unauthorized immigrants’ left the U.S. The vast majority of these did so on their own,” he said. “As we see the hysterical press coverage of interior immigration enforcement, let’s remember that the simplest, easiest, hassle-free way to avoid detention and deportation is to never enter or remain here illegally. The second easiest is to go home.”
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