A new analysis of Census Bureau survey data finds the number of foreign-born residents in the United States fell by about 2.9 million between January 2025 and July 2026. The Center for Immigration Studies, which published the review of Current Population Survey figures, called it the first sustained decline in the immigrant population in about a century and said net migration turned negative for the first time since the 1930s.

Steven Camarota, the center’s director of research, said the shift has no recent parallel. “We’ve never seen anything quite like this before,” he said, describing the change as “big and sustained.” He also pointed to “an enormous decrease” concentrated among people the center classifies as illegal immigrants.

The findings are an analysis of government survey data by CIS, not a new Census Bureau headline release. They sit alongside earlier Census work that already flagged a historic decline in net international migration. How much of the drop is removals, departures, or measurement noise remains contested.

A Preliminary Estimate Of The Unauthorized Population

CIS offered a preliminary residual estimate that the unauthorized immigrant population fell by about 2.3 million over the same stretch, from roughly 15.8 million to 13.5 million. The center itself treats that figure as preliminary. It is not a Census Bureau official count.

The Current Population Survey carries a margin of error on the order of plus or minus about 1 million for this kind of estimate. CIS said it looked for clear evidence that survey nonresponse was driving the result and did not find it. Independent demographers still treat large month-to-month immigrant counts with caution because response rates and coverage can shift.

The 2.3 million figure should be read as the center’s preliminary residual calculation, not as a confirmed administrative tally of people who left the country.

How The Drop Compares With Removals And Prior Growth

The CIS analysis is separate from a Department of Homeland Security claim that about 3 million people left the United States, a figure DHS has described as roughly 675,000 removals plus about 2.2 million who departed on their own. Those are enforcement and administrative claims. They are not the same dataset as the Census survey decline.

The recent drop also sits against a sharp Biden-era rise. CIS and related reporting put the foreign-born increase in that earlier period at about 8.3 million. The new figures reverse part of that climb in a short window.

Not every category moved down. Naturalized citizens rose by about 680,000 in the CIS reading. The decline was concentrated among non-citizen Latin Americans who had arrived in 1980 or later. Only about 44 percent of the people in the declining group were workers, according to the center.

What The Numbers Do And Do Not Settle

The survey decline is large. The margin of error is also large. The unauthorized estimate remains preliminary. And DHS’s 3 million figure comes from a different ledger than the Census residual.

Census reporting earlier this year had already described a historic decline in net international migration, and Brookings Institution analysis of Census data linked reduced immigration to slower population growth nationally and in most states. Those accounts align directionally with a smaller foreign-born total. They do not independently confirm CIS’s 2.3 million unauthorized estimate.

Camarota’s claim is that the scale and duration are new. The government survey, as read by CIS, shows a large decline in the foreign-born total. The unauthorized residual is an estimate. Removals and self-deportation claims come from a different ledger. Until Census, DHS, and independent demographers reconcile those streams, no single figure settles the full accounting.

The Political Stakes Heading Into The Midterms

Immigration remains a central midterm argument. A 2.9 million drop in the foreign-born population, if it holds in later data, is a statistic available to cite on deterrence and departures. The preliminary 2.3 million unauthorized estimate is sharper and more methodologically contested.

Demographers will watch the next Current Population Survey releases and the Census Bureau’s own migration updates for confirmation or revision. For now, the confirmed core is narrower than the loudest claims: the CIS analysis of Census survey data shows a large decline in the foreign-born population since early 2025, naturalized citizenship rose even as non-citizen counts fell, and the unauthorized reduction remains a preliminary residual, not a settled official count.