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US sees net emigration for first time since 1960s

Aug 25, 2025, 6:41am EDT
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Demonstrators rally and march through MacArthur Park.
Mike Blake/Reuters

The US is seeing net emigration for the first time since the 1960s.

Pew Research analysis based on census data found that the country’s foreign-born population declined by nearly 3 percent in the first six months of the year, an outflow that the Trump administration has largely celebrated as a vindication of its push to cut immigration as part of efforts to strengthen the local job market and address domestic political concerns.

Yet the costs for the US could be considerable, the Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman warned: Because undocumented migrants are concentrated in industries such as agriculture, construction, and elderly care, a sudden loss of labor could hammer individual sectors, which will ultimately “make native-born Americans substantially worse off.”

A chart showing Americans’ views on immigration’s effect on the US.
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