Forty years ago this month, Congress passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA), a law intended as a grand bargain.

The migration of Somalis to Minnesota has created stark socioeconomic disparities in a region once known for its egalitarianism. This report documents the struggles of the Minnesota Somali population, ...

Time and time again, activists assert that there is a shortage of workers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). A new National Academies report released yesterday, entitled ...

UN-provided debit cards issued to immigrants in Reynosa, Mexico, in late 2021. Photo by Todd Bensman. AUSTIN, Texas — As the Center for Immigration Studies recently reported, a United Nations-led ...

The foreign-born or immigrant population (legal and illegal) hit new record highs in March 2024 of 51.6 million and 15.6 percent of the total U.S. population. Since March 2022 the foreign-born ...

The Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) can identify individuals using fraudulently obtained Social Security numbers (SSNs) to help expedite ...

Visa overstays are a significant and often overlooked contributor to illegal immigration. The Biden administration was heavily criticized for delaying the release of overstay data, and when DHS ...

The land development company Terrenos Houston has successfully marketed owner-financed lots to tens of thousands of presumed illegal immigrants who cannot qualify for traditional bank loans. Owners ...

For three years the Biden administration has claimed that its policies are designed to focus on criminal aliens to a greater degree than the policies under the Trump administration. As DHS Secretary ...

The Biden administration has appointed a new chief of staff at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Michael D. Lumpkin, who has more than 20 years of active duty military service as a U.S.

Download a PDF of this Backgrounder. An Excel file with information on all occupations is available here. Steven A. Camarota is the director of research and Karen Zeigler is a demographer at the ...

Based on Census Bureau data, we estimate that 13.5 million illegal immigrants live in the U.S. as of July 2026, down from 15.8 million when President Trump began his second term in January 2025. The ...