Foreign-born population share, 2025
15.8%
Mass immigration is a net negative.
Mass immigration benefits large corporations and homeowners in large metropolitan regions. It hurts everyone else. Immigration policy should benefit the broad majority of Americans, not just a narrow segment of society.
More People = More Competition for Resources
Immigrants and their U.S.-born children
97.2M
About 29% of the U.S. population (340.1 million) · 2024
Median home value ÷ median household income i
4.42×
U.S. overall · 2024 — up from about 2.64× in 1990 and 1.95× in 1970
Where the Costs Are Concentrated
Costs of goods and housing go up when you bring in more people than a region can handle. Mass immigration has brought millions in, without the time to build enough homes. In specific areas, home and rent prices have skyrocketed, in large part due to a mass influx of foreigners.
Bubble size shows the foreign-born population. Select any metro to see its housing-cost metrics.
We've Been Here Before
America faced a similar crisis 100 years ago. After decades of mass immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe, the Immigration Acts of 1917 and 1924 cut annual immigration drastically.
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The First Wave (1890-1924)
Foreign-born peak14.8%
Annual legal admissions111K–1.29M
Primary originSouthern and Eastern Europe
Problems: Overcrowded tenement housing, wage suppression, strained public services, social tensions
The Second Wave (1990-Present)
Foreign-born (2025)15.8%
Legal permanent residence (2024)1.36M
Primary originLatin America, Asia
Problems: Unaffordable housing and rent, wage stagnation, overcrowded schools, strained infrastructure, social fragmentation
How We Solved It
-80%
Reduction in Immigration
From a high of 1.3 million in 1907 and an average of about 880,000 a year across the 1900s, immigration was cut significantly, staying at an average of about 178,000 per year for over four decades. The 1965 Hart-Celler Act increased the numbers again, before the 1990 Act created a new period of mass immigration.
People granted lawful permanent residence. DHS Yearbook of Immigration Statistics 2024, Table 1: 1,285,350 in 1907; an average of 879,540 a year across 1901-1910; an average of 177,852 a year across the 41 years from 1925 to 1965.
Immigration Restriction
The 1917 and 1924 Acts drastically cut off the supply of new arrivals. Instead of having hoards of 3,500 people coming every day through Ellis Island, the immigration went down significantly.
Time to Assimilate
With a 41-year pause (1924-1965), immigrants learned English, adopted American customs, and their children became American. By 1970, the various immigrant groups had merged into a common American identity.
The Result
The descendants of the first wave of mass immigration - whether Irish, Italian, Polish, Jewish, Greek, or Chinese - became fully integrated Americans.
We need the same approach today.
Objectives
Comprehensive immigration reform that restores America's sovereignty and ensures successful integration.
Replace the Immigration Act of 1990 Framework
Congress should set lower admissions limits and reconsider the programs governing permanent settlement and temporary employment. A replacement must specify which categories change, what exceptions remain, and how the transition works.
Reduce Annual Immigration
Set a target of approximately 200,000 permanent admissions per year, with explicit limits for each admissions category and clearly defined exceptions. Set separate limits for temporary employment programs.
Prioritize Assimilation and Critical Skills
Make English proficiency and readiness to participate in American civic life clear priorities in admissions. Reserve specialized employment pathways for exceptional skills tied to demonstrated national needs.
Our Articles
Data-driven analysis on immigration policy, cultural integration, and the real costs of mass immigration.
Hypothetical
What Housing Would Cost Without the 1990 Immigration Act
The 1990 Immigration Act tripled annual admissions to roughly one million per year. Median U.S. home value rose from $79,100 to $362,000. The two facts are connected, and the math is local.
Housing
How Immigration Priced Americans Out of a Home
The foreign-born population grew by about 30.4 million between 1990 and 2024. Across all arrival years, immigrants and their U.S.-born children numbered more than 97.2 million in 2024. Where housing construction cannot keep pace with population growth, additional demand puts upward pressure on home prices and rents.
Housing
Why Americans Earn More but Can Afford Less
Real median household income rose 26% since 1990. Housing in the highest-immigration metros rose 47% to 199% in real terms. The gap between what Americans earn and what their cities cost is the product of adding 33.5 million people without building for them.
History
A History of the First Wave of Mass Immigration
From 1890 to 1924, the United States admitted roughly 21 million immigrants, the foreign-born share peaked at 14.8%, and wages for unskilled workers stayed flat for a generation. This is what happened, why it happened, and how it ended.
Sources
- Center for Immigration Studies analysis of the Current Population Survey, January 2025 (53.3 million foreign-born, 15.8% of the CPS civilian noninstitutional population); U.S. Census Bureau, Foreign-Born Population (4.7% in 1970; 14.8% peak in 1890)
- Department of Homeland Security, "Yearbook of Immigration Statistics" (2023); Migration Policy Institute analysis
- U.S. Department of Labor, "Annual Report of the Commissioner General of Immigration" (1907-1930); Immigration Acts of 1917 and 1924; Historical Statistics of the United States
- Median sales price of houses sold, annual average of the four quarters: U.S. Census Bureau and HUD, FRED series MSPUS ($23,475 in 1970; $122,300 in 1990; $418,975 in 2024). Median household income: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, Historical Income Tables, Table H-5 ($8,734 in 1970; $29,940 in 1990; $83,730 in 2024). Metro ratios are median home value over median household income: American Community Survey 2024 1-year, Tables B25077, B19013 and B05012, across the 109 metro areas over 500,000 people. The two bases are not interchangeable: value-based ratios run about a point below sale-price ratios
- U.S. Census Bureau, Historical Census of Housing: Gross Rents (median gross rent $108 in 1970, $447 in 1990); American Community Survey 2024 1-year, Table B25064 ($1,487). Converted to 2024 dollars with BLS Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, annual averages (38.8 in 1970, 130.7 in 1990, 313.689 in 2024), giving $873, $1,073 and $1,487; Apartment List, "How Have Rents Changed Since 1960?" (inflation-adjusted metro rent growth)
- Annual immigration chart. Green Cards: DHS Office of Homeland Security Statistics, Yearbook of Immigration Statistics 2024, Table 1 (persons obtaining lawful permanent resident status: 249,190 in 1950; 1,535,870 in 1990, inflated by the 1986 amnesty, which peaked at 1,826,600 in 1991; 707,360 in 2020, depressed by the pandemic; 1,364,090 in 2024). Illegal population: DHS OHSS, Estimates of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population Residing in the United States, January 2018 to January 2022 (8.5 million in 2000, 11.6 million in 2010, 10.5 million in January 2020, 10.99 million in January 2022, against an assumed 1990 baseline of 3.5 million). No agency publishes a count of illegal entries per year, so this panel shows the resident population instead. Foreign-born population: U.S. Census Bureau, Historical Census Statistics on the Foreign-Born Population of the United States: 1850 to 2000, Table 1 for 1950 to 2000; American Community Survey 1-year for 2010 and 2024; and the January 2025 Current Population Survey as analysed by the Center for Immigration Studies for the final bar, marked separately because it is a different survey. Per-capita denominators: the 1950 decennial total and FRED POPTHM annual averages thereafter
- Metro cards. Foreign-born 1990: 1990 Decennial Census, Summary File 3, Table P042. Foreign-born 2024: American Community Survey 2024 1-year, Table B05012. Foreign-born plus their U.S.-born children under 18: American Community Survey 2024 1-year, Table B05009, counting native children living with at least one foreign-born parent. This is a floor rather than a full first-plus-second-generation count, because no Census product records parental birthplace for adults, and there is no 1990 equivalent, since parental birthplace was last tabulated in the 1970 Census. Home prices: 1990 Census SF3 Table H061 (owner-reported median value) and Zillow Home Value Index, third quarter of 2025
- Limited English proficiency: Migration Policy Institute, Limited English Proficient Individuals in the United States. Naturalization civics and English requirements: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, study materials for the naturalization test
- The blue bar is MPI’s 50.2 million foreign-born count from the 2024 ACS. The gold bar is its separate combined-population estimate. These survey bases differ: do not subtract the bars to estimate U.S.-born children. MPI’s combined population universe excludes people living in institutions, such as prisons and nursing homes. MPI estimates more than 97.2 million immigrants and their U.S.-born children, including adults, across all arrival years. This is not a post-1990 cohort or a count of all later generations. Migration Policy Institute, March 12, 2026.
- The U.S. headline divides the ACS 2024 1-year national median home value ($360,600, B25077) by national median household income ($81,604, B19013). U.S. source data. Historical benchmarks divide Census median home values ($79,100 in 1990; $17,000 in 1970) by same-year CPS median household incomes ($29,943; $8,730). These are approximate comparisons: historical values cover specified owner-occupied single-family homes, while the current ACS covers all owner-occupied homes, and income survey methods differ. Historical home values; 1990 income; 1970 income. The bars cover 109 metros with populations over 500,000. Each bar is the median of metro-level median-home-value ÷ median-household-income ratios. Brackets include their lower boundary and exclude the upper boundary. This geographic comparison does not isolate immigration's causal effect on prices. Sources and definitions.
- Annual legal admissions ranged from 110,620 in FY1918 to 1,285,350 in FY1907 within 1890–1924. In FY2024, 1,364,090 people obtained lawful permanent residence, including people already in the country who adjusted their status. These figures do not measure total arrivals or unauthorized immigration. Source: DHS historical series, via MPI.
- Bubbles show foreign-born population for the 30 U.S. metro areas with the largest foreign-born populations, U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2024 1-year: each metro's foreign-born share applied to its population, one basis for all thirty. Those 30 metros hold about 81% of the foreign-born counted across the 109 metro areas over 500,000 people. The national total and its growth from 1990 to January 2025 are from the U.S. Census decennial counts, ACS, and CIS analysis of the Current Population Survey. The changing first- and second-generation counter uses Census CPS ASEC annual generation counts, 2005–2024. It includes all arrival years and U.S.-born children of any age, excluding later generations with two U.S.-born parents. For 1990 and 2000, Pew historical generation shares are multiplied by C51 population denominators; intervening years through 2004 are linearly interpolated. The 2025 value is our trend estimate, extending the 2021–2024 mean annual change by one year, not a published Census or MPI observation. Survey coverage and weighting change over time; modeled years are identified in the tooltip. The separate MPI benchmark is not spliced into this Census series. See CLAIMS C105 for the reproducible calculation and limitations. Metro bubbles measure foreign-born residents only. The three largest countries of birth in each popup are ACS 2024 table B05006, via the Census Reporter API: one-year for 26 of the 30 metro areas, the same vintage as the bubble counts, and the 2024 five-year table for Austin, San Antonio, Providence and Fresno, which do not publish country-level place of birth at one-year. The table's regional roll-ups ("Caribbean", "Eastern Africa") and its residual "Other" rows are excluded before ranking, so every entry is a country.
- Foreign-born population: U.S. Census Bureau decennial census (1970-2010) and American Community Survey 2024 one-year estimates; January 2025 is a Center for Immigration Studies analysis of the Current Population Survey and is shown with a dashed connector. Home value-to-income: selected Census historical home-value / CPS income benchmarks and ACS 2024 B25077 / B19013. Historical housing coverage differs; see the HomePriceIncomeChart sources.