U.S. Immigration Policy Program
The U.S. Immigration Policy Program provides thought leadership on ways to improve the U.S. immigration system so that it works most effectively in the national interest. To that end, its work focuses on immigration pathways to the United States and immigration enforcement policies and their impacts. It examines the complex demographic, economic, social, political, foreign policy, and other forces that shape U.S. immigration.
Program staff produce data and analyses of immigration trends and the characteristics of U.S. immigrant populations, including unauthorized immigrants. And they conduct original research on the impacts of policy change and the experiences of immigrant populations in diverse parts of the country. This work is frequently informed by private convenings of policymakers and key stakeholders. For more, click here.
Featured
The Immigration Debate America Needs—and Is Not Having
Immigration is central to America’s economic future, yet debate fixates on border crises and policy failures instead of how a modern legal…
Trump Restrictions on Legal Immigration Could Sharply Reduce U.S. Population Growth
President Donald Trump's second-term curbs on legal immigration, spanning visas, refugees, and family reunification, could meaningfully slow U.S…
More Featured Work
Key Statistics
Learn more about immigrants and immigration to the United States
14.8%
The immigrant share of the total U.S. population
Learn how this share has evolved (opens in a new tab)50.2 million
The number of immigrants in the United States
Explore Data Profiles by State (opens in a new tab)18.4%
The share of workers in the U.S. civilian labor force who are immigrants
Get the data at U.S. and state levels (opens in a new tab)
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Michelle Mittelstadt
202 266 1910 [email protected]
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Back on the Table: U.S. Legalization and the Unauthorized Immigrant Groups that Could Factor in the Debate
With 11 million unauthorized immigrants embedded in U.S. communities, there are legislative and executive options for policymakers to consider to offer durable legal status.
MPI Estimates of Potential Beneficiaries under the DREAM Act of 2021
These estimates provide a sense of the unauthorized populations that could potentially gain legal status under this bill.
A Deeper Look at the DREAMers Who Could Feature in the Legalization Debate in Congress
The DREAM Act of 2021 could represent one of the narrower legalization measures with better prospects for passage in a narrowly divided Congress. MPI's latest estimates of the DREAMers who could gain conditional and then permanent legal status are offered here, as are the share of DREAMers who feature in another ongoing conversation, around essential workers in the U.S. labor market overall as well as in the health-care sector.
Biden Administration Is Making Quick Progress on Asylum, but a Long, Complicated Road Lies Ahead
The Biden administration's challenge to dismantle Trump-era barriers to asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border is akin to fixing a plane while flying it. This commentary examines actions taken to date and articulates a series of steps that could help establish an effective, humane asylum system that works in tandem with border management goals and efforts to reduce the drivers of migration through regional migration management measures with neighboring countries.
Biden Sets the Stage for a Remarkably Active First 100 Days on Immigration
President Joe Biden's first 100 days in office brought sweeping immigration executive actions, but thin Senate margins and competing crises pose steep hurdles to legislative progress.
Obscure but Powerful: Shaping U.S. Immigration Policy through Attorney General Referral and Review
This report examines how attorneys general have used referral and review powers to reshape U.S. immigration law, with the Trump era marking a major expansion.
Nearly 3 Million U.S. Citizens and Legal Immigrants Initially Excluded under the CARES Act Are Covered under the December 2020 COVID-19 Stimulus
The pandemic-recovery stimulus package that passed Congress in December rectified what many had viewed as a significant oversight in the earlier CARES Act: Its exclusion of U.S. citizens and legal immigrants in mixed-status families. MPI researchers estimate nearly 3 million U.S. citizens and legal immigrants excluded from the earlier legislation can receive the later relief, as well as qualify retroactively for the CARES Act payment, as this commentary explores.
Anticipated “Chilling Effects” of the Public-Charge Rule Are Real: Census Data Reflect Steep Decline in Benefits Use by Immigrant Families
Researchers, service providers, and others have long predicted that sweeping revisions by the Trump administration to the definition of who constitutes a public charge would deter large numbers of immigrant-led households from using federal means-tested public benefits for which they are eligible. Recently released Census Bureau data show they were right: During the administration's first three years, program participation declined twice as fast among noncitizens as citizens.
Construcción de un nuevo sistema migratorio regional: Redefiniendo la cooperación entre Estados Unidos con México y Centroamérica
El control fronterizo solo no basta; se propone un sistema regional con visas temporales, protección humanitaria, control profesionalizado e inversión en Centroamérica.
Unauthorized Immigrants in the United States: Stable Numbers, Changing Origins
As of 2018, the unauthorized immigrant population in the United States held at 11 million, with origins shifting away from Mexico toward Asia and Central America.
