Recent immigration surge largest in U.S. history: data

NEW YORK, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- The immigration surge of the past few years has been the largest in U.S. history, surpassing the great immigration boom of the late 1800s and early 1900s, according to a New York Times analysis of government data.

Annual net migration, the number of people coming to the country minus the number leaving, averaged 2.4 million people from 2021 to 2023, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Total net migration during the Joe Biden administration is likely to exceed eight million people.

"That's a faster pace of arrivals than during any other period on record, including the peak years of Ellis Island traffic, when millions of Europeans came to the United States," noted the report on Wednesday. "Even after taking into account today's larger U.S. population, the recent surge is the most rapid since at least 1850."

The numbers in the Times analysis include both legal and illegal immigration. About 60 percent of immigrants who have entered the country since 2021 have done so without legal authorization, according to a Goldman Sachs report based on government data.

The combined increases of legal and illegal immigration have caused the share of the U.S. population born in another country to reach a new high, 15.2 percent in 2023, up from 13.6 percent in 2020. The previous high was 14.8 percent, in 1890.