Spiritual Forum

The foreign-born population currently residing in the United States has surged to a record high of 49.5 million.

This is according to a new study released by the immigration think tank, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), which found that around 15 percent of the approximately 330 million residents of the U.S. were originally born in another country. (Related: America sees 550% increase in illegal immigrants coming in from Canada.)

This same report noted the percentage of the population residing in the U.S. that is foreign-born is higher now than at any point since the U.S. government began conducting the census over 230 years ago.

CIS attributed the rise to migrants flooding into the country during the ongoing border crisis under the administration of President Joe Biden.

The Census Bureau, where the CIS collected the data for the study, had originally estimated that the country's foreign-born population would not hit 15 percent until at least 2033.

"The scale of immigration is so high that it appears to have made the new Census Bureau population projections, published on Nov. 9 of this year, obsolete," the CIS report stated.

Foreign-born population in the U.S. surges during Biden administration

The CIS's investigation found that, since Biden took office in January 2021, the foreign-born population of the U.S. has grown by at least 4.5 million people – a number larger than the individual populations of half of all U.S. states.

Based on the think tank's previous estimates regarding illegal immigrants in America, more than half of the 4.5 million increase – approximately 2.5 million – is likely due to illegal immigration. There are likely thousands more illegal immigrants in the U.S. who continue to evade federal or state authorities and remain undocumented.

Furthermore, the 4.5 million overall increase and the 2.5 million increase in illegal immigrants are both net figures and are offset by outmigration – migrants who voluntarily leave or are deported – and natural mortality among the foreign-born population already here.

Under former President Barack Obama, the foreign-born population of the U.S. grew by around 68,000 a month. Under former President Donald Trump, that number was cut by nearly a third to 42,000. Since Biden took office, that number has skyrocketed to 137,000 a month.

The largest percentage increases since Biden took office are for immigrants from South America, who surged by 28 percent. They are followed closely behind by immigrants from Central America, up 25 percent. Migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean and the Middle East follow with increases of 21 percent, 20 percent and 14 percent, respectively.

While a large share of the recent foreign-born population growth is due to illegal immigration, legal immigrants still account for three-fourths of the total foreign-born population of the United States.

The study authors, CIS Director of Research Steven A. Camarota and CIS Demographer Karen Zeigler, estimated that if immigration – legal and illegal – into the U.S. continues at the current pace, the country's foreign-born population will reach nearly 59 million, or more than 17 percent of the population, by the end of Biden's second term in December 2028, if he is reelected.

Learn more about immigration concerns in the United States at Migrants.news.

Watch this clip of Sen. John Cornyn of Texas speaking on the Senate floor about how Biden "doesn't care" about securing the country's border.