How U.S. Immigration Changed Since Trump’s Second Term Began

(UNITED STATES) U.S. immigration levels hit record highs through 2024 and early 2025, then fell sharply after President Trump returned to office and moved quickly on enforcement and restriction. The latest estimates through August 2025 point to a clear reversal: the foreign-born population and the number of unauthorized immigrants are both down, and officials signal more cuts to come as new policies take hold across the United States 🇺🇸.

According to analysis by VisaVerge.com, the shift is striking because it follows one of the fastest expansions in modern history. The foreign-born population reached an all-time high of 53.3 million in January 2025, equal to 15.8% of the total U.S. population. By June 2025, that number fell to 51.9 million, a drop of about 1.5 million in six months, with further declines possible as removals continue and legal pathways tighten.

The unauthorized immigrant population followed a similar arc. It likely peaked near 14 million in 2023 before falling by as much as 1 million in the first half of 2025. Analysts tie the drop to faster deportations, more returns at the border, and voluntary departures sparked by rising enforcement and the loss of protections.

The labor market is already feeling the change. Immigrants made up 19% of the U.S. labor force in June 2025, down from 20% in January 2025. That shift represents more than 750,000 fewer immigrant workers in just six months. The Economic Policy Institute warns that the administration’s large-scale deportation drive could cost millions of jobs for both immigrants and U.S. citizens, with the sharpest strain in:

• Construction
• Child care
• Food services
• Home health care

Rapid Policy Shift in Trump’s Second Term

In the first 100 days of 2025, President Trump signed 181 executive actions on immigration. The orders focus on:

• Mass deportations and rapid removals of noncitizens
• Tighter asylum rules and closing sections of the southern border
• Restricting or ending humanitarian programs (including Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and refugee admissions)
• Expanding E-Verify for work checks
• Challenging birthright citizenship for certain groups

These steps follow a separate policy turn late in the prior administration. In June 2024, President Biden limited access to asylum at the border, which reduced encounters for a time. The 2025 actions go further: the Trump administration suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, revoked several Biden-era refugee directives, began rolling back TPS designations, and announced plans to shut down the CBP One app used to book asylum appointments—changes that experts say will push more people to irregular crossings or keep them from applying at all.

Legal immigration is also under pressure. Demand for employment-based green cards surged in 2025, and the Department of State has warned that most FY 2025 employment-based limits (150,037 worldwide) could be reached by late summer. If categories hit their annual caps, they become “unavailable” until the next fiscal year. Applicants with pending cases could see longer waits or no visa numbers until October.

• For official availability updates, the State Department’s monthly Visa Bulletin posts current cutoffs and category movement at this link: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-bulletin/2025/visa-bulletin-for-august-2025.html.

Policy blueprints tied to Project 2025 call for deeper cuts, including eliminating or shrinking several visa categories and ending protections for Dreamers and many TPS holders. While proposals need action to take effect, they outline a longer-term plan to scale back both humanitarian and legal avenues within U.S. immigration.

Federal, state, and local agencies now share more data and coordinate more often on arrests and removals. That broader cooperation helps explain the faster pace of deportations since January and the measured decline in both the foreign-born population and the number of people without legal status.

Effects on Families, Workers, and Employers

The human cost is growing. People without lawful status face a higher risk of arrest and deportation, including those who once held TPS or DACA-like protections that are now being narrowed. Many asylum seekers have fewer ways to apply or keep their cases moving. More pending cases may be denied or cut off if eligibility rules tighten, deadlines change, or tools like CBP One are closed.

Families report new fears about separation if a parent or caregiver is detained. Advocates note that when a worker loses status, children—many of them U.S. citizens—can lose housing, food support, or health coverage tied to a parent’s job. Service groups in high-immigrant states say they are preparing for emergency planning if removals expand into neighborhoods, schools, and worksites.

Workers and students on legal pathways also face hurdles:

• Highly skilled employees with pending green card cases could see their categories close once the annual limit is met, freezing progress until the next fiscal year.
• Employers may need to manage extensions, project delays, or relocations for staff.
• Nurses, teachers, and tech staff on temporary visas may struggle if processing slows or categories shrink.

Employers face tougher audits and expanded E-Verify, which raise compliance costs and risk of penalties. Companies in construction and agriculture warn of open jobs they cannot fill quickly. Child care providers and nursing homes describe rising waitlists as staffing thins, which can also pull U.S. parents and family caregivers out of the labor force.

States and cities are under pressure to help federal enforcement or risk funding fights and legal threats. Access to state databases for immigration checks is expanding in some places. That can speed removals but also drive families underground, making it harder for schools, clinics, and police to reach communities.

Important: These shifts increase the likelihood of family separation, service disruptions, and localized labor shortages in core industries.

Legal Battles and What Comes Next

Several executive moves—especially those touching birthright citizenship and TPS—are heading to court. Some orders have been put on hold while judges review them. The legal fights could stretch for months, and rulings may differ by region, creating uneven results for families and employers who move across state lines.

If the current policy path holds, analysts expect further declines in the immigrant share of the workforce through late 2025 and into 2026. That could:

• Ease short-term political pressure at the border
• Tighten labor in core industries, increasing operational strain for businesses

For families and small businesses, the next few months are likely to bring more uncertainty, more check-ins with lawyers, and last-minute changes to travel and hiring plans.

Congress could step in, though past efforts to overhaul immigration have stalled. Without new laws, the administration can keep using executive tools to:

1. Speed removals
2. Slow humanitarian entries
3. Target legal categories for cuts

The Department of State will keep adjusting employment-based categories as yearly limits close, while the Department of Homeland Security carries out removal priorities set by the White House.

For now, the direction is clear: fewer entries, more removals, and steeper barriers for people seeking safety or long-term status. Whether this approach reduces irregular crossings for good—or instead shifts them to more dangerous routes—will shape the debate over U.S. immigration well into 2026. Families, workers, and businesses are already living with the consequences, one job loss, court date, and border decision at a time.