U.S. Sees Negative Net Immigration For First Time In Decades

President Trump made cracking down on the immigration crisis the main focal point of his campaign, which ultimately elevated him to the White House. Since returning last January, the border has all but closed, illegal immigration encounters are at record lows, and now the U.S. is seeing a 60-year bubble collapse. For the first time since the 1970s, the U.S. in 2025 experienced negative net migration.

After four years of the Biden administration, which saw over 800,000 border encounters annually, the immigration crisis has been solved in one short year. At least in terms of the border being open. Now the deportations must begin. But after former President Biden once griped that nothing could be done on the border without Congress, President Trump and his Border Czar Tom Homan proved that to be totally false.

Lora Ries of The Heritage Foundation says his executive actions are what finally popped this "bubble" of immigration.

"He quickly secured the border, which shut off illegal crossings...he also put restrictions on a number of other types of entry into the United States," she says.

One of the biggest actions to curb that influx was dismantling Biden's CBP-One app, which let people claim asylum, get a court date sometimes ten years out, and flee to whatever city they choose. No vetting, no true progress or background check. Just apply, and you are in, which is the opposite of how an immigration system should function.

But where did the immigration bubble start? It was not with Biden, though he certainly helped inflate it. The bubble is not all illegal immigration related, either. It goes back to 1965, when lawmakers passed the Hart-Cellar Act, which created the family preference system. Essentially, that means Spouses, parents and children of U.S. citizens, and lawful permanent residents, can permanently migrate to the U.S., allowing a "chain" of sponsorship.

"It created what we call 'chain migration,' for those family members...lots of categories and types of family relationship are able to then come into the U.S. and get green cards," says Ries. "So that chain migration really inflated this bubble."

That of course is on the legal migration side of things. But illegal immigration is really where the bubble grew to enormous proportions. Millions flooded in under the Biden administration, with approximations ranging in the tens of millions.

But he does not shoulder all of the blame. The government has been asleep at the wheel on the subject since the 1970s.

"We just have not enforced the law like we should have been doing for the small immigration violations...whether that is visa overstays, or what have you," Ries says.

She adds this bubble also grew because of widespread fraud, corruption and abuse of power.

But the bubble has finally burst, thanks to President Trump. If deportations can begin going more smoothly than they have been, then America could finally be taking back control.