Almost 19 million illegal migrants are living in the United States, according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform. “Since our December 2020 estimate, the illegal alien population in the United States has grown by 4.1 million, or 28.2 percent, reflecting an unprecedented wave of illegal immigration during the Biden administration,” the group reported on Wednesday.
The higher figure will add to pressure on GOP leaders and President Donald Trump as they are being pushed by business interests to roll back the popular deportation of all illegal migrants. But the deportations are both popular and beneficial for Americans during the run-up to the 2026 mid-term elections. GOP members’ ambivalent comments do not say if they are going to reduce enforcement against a huge population of non-violent, employed migrants. “We got a little hiccup with some of the Hispanic and Latino voters, for certain, because some of the immigration enforcement was viewed to be overzealous,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said on March 10. “But here’s the good news: we’re in a course correction mode right now.”
