Raw Data: Illegal Immigration Continues to Decline

Every year the Pew Research Center releases an annual report on the flow of unauthorized immigrants into the US. A while back—and I apologize for being fuzzy on the details—immigration hawks were all yammering about how 2016 was the year. Based on their read of Census data, 2016 was the year that Pew would finally show an increase in the population of unauthorized immigrants after nearly a decade of decline. But no. According to Pew, at least, it’s still declining:

The full report is here. We now have a full decade of decline following the peak year of 2007. This is why Donald Trump is so hellbent on inciting clashes wherever he can. Without that, there’s just no way to keep his base outraged over the horde of Mexicans invading our borders. After all, Trump’s supporters can read. After a while, even they’ve heard the numbers often enough to figure out that there’s really nothing much to be outraged about here.

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do things differently in the aftermath of a political crisis: Watergate. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after, and go deep on, stories others don’t. And we’re a nonprofit newsroom because we knew corporations and billionaires would never fund the journalism we do. Our reporting makes a difference in policies and people’s lives changed.

And we need your support like never before to vigorously fight back against the existential threats American democracy and journalism face. We’re running behind our online fundraising targets and urgently need all hands on deck right now. We can’t afford to come up short—we have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

Please help with a donation today if you can—even just a few bucks helps. Not ready to donate but interested in our work? Sign up for our Daily newsletter to stay well-informed—and see what makes our people-powered, not profit-driven, journalism special.

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