A report on Monday noted that one of President Donald Trump’s signature campaign issues is paying huge dividends, politically speaking.
The New York Times reported that for the first time in decades the immigration population has dropped in the U.S. “For the first time in decades, more immigrants are leaving the United States than arriving, a new study finds,” the Times said, adding that this signifies “an early indication that President Trump’s hard-line immigration agenda is leading people to depart — whether through deportation or by choice.”
“An analysis of new census data released … found that between January and June, the foreign-born population in the United States — both lawful and unlawful residents — declined by nearly 1.5 million,” the report continued. “In June, the country was home to 51.9 million immigrants, down from 53.3 million six months earlier.”
A Bureau of Labor Statistics study released this month found that the overall decline in the foreign-born population was larger than reported by The New York Times — a drop of 2.2 million people, including an estimated 1.6 million undocumented immigrants.
Meanwhile, the number of migrants held in federal detention centers has increased by 50 percent since Trump took office in January, USA Journal News reported on Saturday.
According to government data, a record 60,000 individuals are now in long-term detention facilities, up from about 39,000 at the end of the Biden administration. That total does not include detainees at recently opened or expanded sites such as “Alligator Alcatraz,” the controversial detention center in the Florida Everglades that has drawn criticism from many on the political left.
“It’s evident that the numbers being published by ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] about people held in long-term residential facilities is severely undercounting the number of people who are in ICE custody at any given moment,” Amelia Dagen, a staff attorney at the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights told Axios.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis remained defiant Friday after U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams ordered the Alligator Alcatraz detention facility shut down over environmental concerns. The Florida site has also faced criticism from detainees who described poor conditions inside the facility.
