Adding to the long list of unprecedented occurrences in President Donald Trump’s second term, a new report has confirmed the unthinkable. For the first time in 50 years, the country experienced negative net migration, which is raising alarms everywhere.
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We’ve been keeping you updated with Trump’s ongoing mass deportation agenda. His administration reported historic levels of deportations across the country– even that of American citizens. Now, we have the data to back up what many Americans feared.
The Brookings Institute reported a significant drop in immigrants coming to the U.S. in 2025. “We estimate net flows of -295,000 to -10,000 for the year,” Brookings reported. “Though a high degree of policy uncertainty remains, continued negative net migration for 2026 is also likely.”
The administration has taken on a very aggressive approach to addressing the country’s ongoing immigration crisis. He’s sent National Guard officers and thousands of ICE agents to Democrat-led cities like Washington, D.C. and Minneapolis in efforts to target their migrant population. The president’s recent focus on Minneapolis’ Somali population led to the shooting death of an American citizen, Renee Good, on Jan. 6.
Despite Trump’s promise to rid the country of undocumented immigrants, the Brookings study found the negative number is mostly due to a total drop in migrants coming into the country in the first place and not because Trump is deporting more people. Voluntary self-deportation also played an important role in the figures.
“At 310,000 to 315,000, the 2025 removals are not much higher than the 2024 removals of around 285,000,” the report noted. In 2025, most deportations were initiated by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) as opposed to immigration enforcement, which suggests ICE presence in American cities isn’t as effective as the president says.
Apprehensions at the Southern U.S. border dropped by 33 percent last January, according to statistics obtained by ABC News. This means less people are trying to cross the Southern border under Trump’s reign. By the end of 2025, CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott reported seven straight months of zero releases at the border, boasting this makes it ” truly the most secure border in history.”
The writing has been on the wall for months. Trump’s continuous attacks on African, Caribbean and Latinx nations has marked America as no longer safe for migrants to enter. Those who have made it to the U.S. have now become scapegoats for the Trump administration to parade for their cause.
Negative net migration is arguably exactly what President Trump wants. He’s praised his mass deportation agenda as a great success, threatened to cut off funding for sanctuary cities and recently paused all visa processing for 75 countries– including Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Venezuela, according to Fox News. Now, it seems Trump’s hard work is finally paying off, and according to the Brookings Institute, these numbers probably won’t get better any time soon.
“For 2026, we project net migration is likely to remain in negative territory,” Brookings said. The organization also noted a lack of data transparency from the Trump administration impacted their estimates. “The slowdown implies weaker employment, GDP, and consumer spending growth.”
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