Foreign-Born Population Grows to Highest Level Ever Under Biden (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
By Jack Gournell | Tuesday, 13 September 2022 08:18 PM EDT
The total foreign-born population in the United States has hit its highest level ever at 46.8 million under the Biden administration, according to just-released Census figures.
The numbers include both illegal and legal immigration, showing at least in part the effect of illegal crossings along the southern border with Mexico, writes Steven A. Camarota at the Center for Immigration Studies.
Republicans have criticized President Joe Biden for abandoning former President Donald Trump's tough border policies that held those trying to cross the border without documentation in Mexico while they awaited hearings. Border surges have coincided with Biden's policy reversals.
During the past year, 2 million new foreign-born residents have been added to the population, according to the Census Bureau's Annual Social and Economic Supplement survey.
The foreign-born population has quintupled since 1970 and tripled since 1980. It has doubled since 1990, according to the data.
"The foreign-born share of the U.S. population is approaching the record highs reached in 1910 (14.7 percent) and 1890 (14.8 percent)," Camarota writes.
Mass immigration, whether legal or illegal, can hurt the native-born working class by depressing wages and pushing up the need for social services since immigrant households are statistically larger and earn less, thus contributing less in taxes, Breitbart News' John Binder writes.
But it aids wealthier Americans who are able to hire lower-wage foreign workers, Binder argues, and it provides them with more consumers and more families who need housing.
"Just the sheer number of people overwhelms communities," Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said earlier this week. "This idea of mass immigration — whether it’s illegal immigration or whether it’s just mass immigration through the legal process like the Diversity Lottery or chain migration — that is not conducive to assimilating people into a civil society."
A recent Rasmussen Reports survey found that 54% of likely Republican voters want to see legal immigration cut by more than half to fewer than 500,000 a year, while swing voters want them cut to at least 750,000 a year.