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Yellow dots = key legislation or policy events. Colored bands = major policy eras. Hover for details.
Immigration Act of 1924
Established national-origins quotas that heavily favored Northern European countries and barred most Asian immigration.
Immigration & Nationality Act
Abolished the national-origins quota system, replacing it with family reunification and skills-based preferences. Dramatically shifted immigration from Europe to Asia and Latin America.
IRCA — Amnesty for ~2.7M
The Immigration Reform and Control Act legalized approximately 2.7 million undocumented immigrants, imposed employer sanctions, and increased border enforcement.
Immigration Act of 1990
Increased total annual immigration caps by 40%, created the Diversity Visa lottery, and expanded employment-based visas.
IIRIRA — Tougher Enforcement
The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act expanded deportation grounds, created "expedited removal," and made it harder to appeal deportation orders.
DACA — Dreamers Program
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (executive order) shields ~700,000 immigrants brought to the U.S. as children from deportation and grants work authorization.
Title 42 & COVID Shutdown
CBP used a public-health authority (Title 42) to rapidly expel most border crossers. Legal immigration fell 33% as USCIS offices closed during the pandemic.
Record Encounters Resume
Border encounters reached a then-record 1.7M in FY2021 after Title 42 was selectively enforced. DHS faced a massive backlog in immigration courts (now 3M+ pending cases).
Title 42 Lifted — 2.48M Encounters
After Title 42 expired in May 2023, FY2023 ended with a record 2.475M border encounters. Congress failed to pass a bipartisan border security bill.
Breakdown of ~1.1M annual green cards by admission category. Click any category to see details.
Countries of birth for LPRs admitted in 2023. Click column headers to sort. Source: DHS Yearbook of Immigration Statistics, Table 3.
| Country | Region | LPRs (2023)↓ | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
1Mexico | Latin America | 132,609(11.8%) | |
2India | Asia | 88,604(7.9%) | |
3China | Asia | 62,054(5.5%) | |
4Philippines | Asia | 49,857(4.4%) | |
5Dominican Republic | Latin America | 43,899(3.9%) | |
6Cuba | Latin America | 42,699(3.8%) | |
7Vietnam | Asia | 31,119(2.8%) | |
8Brazil | Latin America | 22,043(2.0%) | |
9El Salvador | Latin America | 20,671(1.8%) | |
10Colombia | Latin America | 20,406(1.8%) | |
11Jamaica | Latin America | 19,388(1.7%) | |
12Guatemala | Latin America | 18,943(1.7%) | |
13Haiti | Latin America | 18,174(1.6%) | |
14South Korea | Asia | 15,869(1.4%) | |
15Ecuador | Latin America | 14,806(1.3%) | |
16Pakistan | Asia | 14,501(1.3%) | |
17Nigeria | Africa | 12,903(1.1%) | |
18Canada | North America | 11,762(1.0%) | |
19Ukraine | Europe | 11,389(1.0%) | |
20Ethiopia | Africa | 11,078(1.0%) |
Two measures, because only one of them spans the whole period. The solid orange bar is U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions at the southwest border — the same measure in every year since FY2000. The pale red bar behind it is every CBP encounter at the southwest land border: Border Patrol plus officers at ports of entry, and Title 42 expulsions alongside Title 8 apprehensions. That wider measure did not exist before FY2020, which is why it starts there rather than at zero. Neither counts unique people — one person turned back repeatedly is counted each time. FY2025 is the most recent complete fiscal year.
Pew Research Center estimates based on the "residual method" — the difference between Census-based foreign-born counts and the legal immigrant population. Range of uncertainty is roughly ±500K.
Understanding the difference between legal pathways and unauthorized entry — including a common misconception: for most unauthorized immigrants, there is no legal line to stand in.
The U.S. admits ~1.1M lawful permanent residents per year. There is no general "wait in line" — eligibility depends entirely on which category you qualify for. Many people have no legal path regardless of how long they wait.
The largest path. Immediate relatives of U.S. citizens (spouses, parents, minor children) have no annual cap. Other family categories have wait times of 2–20+ years depending on country of origin.
Five preference categories from "priority workers" with extraordinary ability (EB-1) to unskilled workers (EB-3). Employer sponsorship usually required. Indian & Chinese nationals face waits of 10–100+ years due to per-country caps.
Refugees apply abroad; asylees apply at the border or within the U.S. after arrival. Must prove well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or social group membership.
50,000 visas per year drawn by random lottery from countries with historically low immigration. Citizens of Mexico, China, India, Philippines, and several others are ineligible (too many immigrants already).
An estimated ~14 million people lived in the U.S. without legal status as of July 2023, Pew's highest figure on record. The majority have lived here for 10+ years. About half of the unauthorized population entered legally and overstayed a visa.
Entering without inspection between ports of entry — the classic image. Historically the most common unauthorized path, though declining as a share of the total.
Entering legally on a tourist, student, or work visa and remaining after it expires. DHS estimates this now accounts for roughly 40–50% of the unauthorized population.
Using forged or borrowed documents to enter or work. A smaller but persistent category.
Consequences of unauthorized presence: Bars to future legal status, deportation, multi-year or permanent bars on re-entry, inability to legally work, no path to driver's license in most states, ineligibility for federal benefits.
Conviction rates per 100,000 adults by immigration status. Multiple independent studies reach the same conclusion: immigrants are incarcerated at substantially lower rates than native-born citizens.
Convictions per 100,000 adults in each group. Source: Cato Institute analysis of Texas Department of Public Safety data (2012–2018 averages). Texas has the most complete data broken down by immigration status. National Academy of Sciences (2020) finds consistent results across multiple states.
Why might this be?