Mass immigration doesn't work.

Since 1990, the United States' foreign-born population has grown to 53 million, or ~16% of U.S. population, centralized in large metropolitan areas. This has caused mass competition for housing, rent, and goods, leading to a worse quality of life for Americans, particularly young Americans.

We can solve this problem by ending illegal immigration, cutting legal admissions by 80%, and promoting assimilation.

Costs Have Gone Up

Since the 1990 Immigration Act, mass immigration has brought millions of people in, fueling competition for goods, jobs, and - most importantly - housing.

15.8%

Foreign-born share of the U.S. population

The share was 4.7% in 1970 and 7.9% in 1990.

+33.5M

Foreign-born residents, 1990 to 2025

There were 19.8M foreign-born residents in 1990. By 2025, that figure was 53.3M.

5.0×

Median home sale price ÷ median household income

2024 national ratio, up from 4.1× in 1990 and 2.7× in 1970 (+86% since 1970).

$108 → $1,487

Median monthly rent, 1970 to 2024

Nominal median gross rent.

$29,940 → $83,730

Median household income, 1990 to 2024

Nominal annual median household income.

6.42×

Median home value ÷ income in metros 25%+ foreign-born

ACS 2024 median, compared with 3.11× in metros under 5% foreign-born.

Where the Costs Are Concentrated

Costs of goods and housing go up when you bring in more people than a region can handle. Mass immigration has brought millions in, without the time to build enough homes. In specific areas, home and rent prices have skyrocketed, in large part due to a mass influx of foreigners.

Bubble size shows the foreign-born population. Select any metro to see its housing-cost metrics.

Read the full explanation →

Decades of the Same Policy

We've had the same immigration policy in the United States since 1991, when legal inflows were increased to over 1 milltion per year and the H1-B program was established.

Before 1990 After 1990
Foreign-born residents in the United States+33.5 million since 19900M20M40M60MMedian home price ÷ median household income5.0x in 20243.5x4.0x4.5x5.0x5.5x1990 Immigration Act19.8M53.3M2025 CPS4.1x5.0x197019801990200020102020202534 years under the post-1990 framework
Source

We've Been Here Before

America faced the same crisis 100 years ago.

Periods of High and Low Immigration Levels

Before 1890, most immigrants were settlers, spreading out across the country. The 1890-1924 urban wave brought in 20 million Italian, Eastern European, and Jewish immigrants to large metro areas. The landmark 1924 Immigration Act cut admissions by ~80%, leading to a 40-year period of relatively low immigration. By 1970, the foreign-born population fell to a low of 4.7%. The 1965 Hart-Celler Act reopened the door and increased immigration, before the 1990 Act significantly accelerated it. The foreign-born population has climbed back to 15.8% as of January 2025.

Rising, and rising againThe 1924-1965 restrictionReopening, 1965-1990
0%4%8%12%16%9.7%14.8%4.7%15.8%185018901930197020102025Settlement era1850-1890First urban wave1890-1924The pause1924-1965Slow reopening1965-1990Second urban wave1990-present

The First Wave (1890-1924)

Foreign-born peak14.8%
Annual immigration (1907)1.3M
Primary originSouthern and Eastern Europe

Problems: Overcrowded tenement housing, wage suppression, strained public services, social tensions

The Second Wave (1990-Present)

Foreign-born (2025)15.8%
Annual immigration (2024)3.2M+
Primary originLatin America, Asia

Problems:Unaffordable housing and rent, wage stagnation, overcrowded schools, strained infrastructure, social fragmentation

How We Solved It

-80%
Reduction in Immigration

After decades of mass immigration from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe, the Immigration Acts of 1917 and 1924 cut annual immigration drastically.

From a high of 1.3 million in 1907 and an average of about 880,000 a year across the 1900s, immigration was cut significantly, staying at an average of about 178,000 per year for over four decades. The 1965 Hart-Celler Act increased the numbers again, before the 1990 Act created a new period of mass immigration.

People granted lawful permanent residence. DHS Yearbook of Immigration Statistics 2024, Table 1: 1,285,350 in 1907; an average of 879,540 a year across 1901-1910; an average of 177,852 a year across the 41 years from 1925 to 1965.

Immigration Restriction

The 1917 and 1924 Acts drastically cut off the supply of new arrivals. Instead of having hoards of 3,500 people coming every day through Ellis Island, the immigration went down significantly.

Time to Assimilate

With a 41-year pause (1924-1965), immigrants learned English, adopted American customs, and their children became American. By 1970, the various immigrant groups had merged into a common American identity.

The Result

The descendants of the first wave of mass immigration - whether Irish, Italian, Polish, Jewish, Greek, or Chinese - became fully integrated Americans.

We need the same approach today.

Mission

Comprehensive immigration reform that restores America's sovereignty and ensures successful integration.

Reduce Immigration

Transition from mass immigration to sustainable levels that enable integration.

Prioritize Compatibility

Focus on immigrants who can assimilate successfully, along with those possessing hyper-specialized skills critical to national interests.

The Three Questions That Matter

Immigration reduction is first and foremost. However, immigrants should be prioritized based on whether they can or will assimilate into American culture.

Language

Can they function in English?

Approximately 22.3 million immigrant adults in the United States fall into the Limited English Proficient (LEP) category - roughly 47% of the foreign-born population aged 5 and older. In order to be naturalized as a U.S. citizen, you must take a 78-word vocabulary test. Schools in major cities teach in dozens of languages, diverting resources from American students. The United States has always had a de facto language of English and must have a common language in order to maintain a cohesive society.

The 1924-1965 immigration pause succeeded in part because it gave schools and communities time to teach English to the immigrants already here.

Culture

Are they from a compatible civilization?

Every country is built on its own foundation. For America, it's English common law, Christian (Protestant) values, constitutional self-governance, and individual liberty. Immigration from Europe and the Americas draws on centuries of shared history and overlapping traditions. Immigration from civilizations with no historical ties to America - and fundamentally different legal, religious, and social systems - requires far more time and effort to integrate.

Assimilation is the mechanism that turns immigrants into Americans. Without it, immigration produces parallel societies and a weaker nation.

Economics

Does this serve the American worker?

Immigration policy should exist to benefit Americans. Since 1990, the foreign-born population has grown from 19.8 million (7.9% of total pop.) to 53.3 million (15.8% of total pop., January 2025). Wages for non-college workers have stagnated, while many of the higher-paying jobs are being filled by the foreigners themselves. Additionally, the cost of living in the major metro areas with high foreign-born populations has climbed substantially faster than wages. The current arrangement serves large corporations and very wealthy Americans, while hurting the majority.

Immigration should only serve to improve the country as a whole - especially American middle class - and should be rejected if it does not accomplish that.

The Standard

Immigration works when numbers are manageable, selection is based on compatibility, and assimilation is required. From 1924 to 1965, these conditions held. The result was the largest middle-class expansion in American history.

Since 1990, none of these conditions have been met. The Immigration Act of 1990 prioritized volume over compatibility, and 35 years later, the consequences are measured in stagnant wages, unaffordable housing, and communities that no longer resemble the nation they were built for.

Recent Changes from the Trump Administration

The Trump Administration has used executive action to cut both illegal and legal entry into the country. Illegal immigration is at its lowest level since 1970, while net migration is projected to be down around ~80% in 2026 (compared to 2024).

Where 2026 is projected to be

People entering the country illegally in 2026Under 20,000

Known got-aways, the people who cross and are not caught, running under 50 a day against above 2,000 a day at the 2023 peak, when the Congressional Budget Office put the year at about 860,000. Border Patrol has separately released nobody into the country for fourteen consecutive months through June 2026, so got-aways are close to the whole of illegal entry.

Net migration in 2026321K to 570K

Compared to 2.7 million in 2024 and 1.3 million in 2025. The Census Bureau projects ~321,000 while the Congressional Budget Office projects ~570,000.

Refugees admitted in the first ten months of 202610,258

Against 38,102 in 2025 and 100,034 in 2024. The ceiling was cut from 125,000 to 7,500, then raised to 17,500 in May 2026.

Diversity visas issued since 23 December 2025Zero

The lottery makes up to 55,000 Green Cards available a year and produced 52,470 in 2025. The President directed DHS to pause it on 18 December 2025 and the State Department stopped issuance five days later. Registration for the 2027 lottery has not opened.

What the law still allows

Green Cards projected for 2026, a cut of 16% to 22%1.02M to 1.11M

Against 1,320,080 in 2025, itself only 3.2% below 2024. Built from measured quarters: adjustments of status ran 30% below the year before in the first quarter, and Brookings projects 490,000 to 575,000 issued abroad. Still above the level of every year from 1996 to 2004.

Immigrant visas issued, 2024 to 2025+14.7%

612,258 to 645,890. The consular pipeline that produces new arrivals grew through the last complete year on record.

Green Cards to parents of U.S. citizens, 2024252,570

18.5% of every Green Card granted that year, the highest on the published record. The category is uncapped and Congress has not touched it.

These are great changes but can be undone easily by the next president

  • The $100,000 H-1B fee took effect in September 2025, was struck down by a federal court on June 8, 2026, and the First Circuit refused to revive it on July 24. It is not being collected.
  • Diversity Visa issuance stopped on December 23, 2025 by executive direction. A future administration can restart it with a memo.
  • The travel bans and the 75-country Green Card freeze rest on proclamations. President Biden revoked the first-term travel ban on his first day in office in 2021.

Sources

1 Center for Immigration Studies analysis of the Current Population Survey, January 2025 (53.3 million foreign-born, 15.8% of the CPS civilian noninstitutional population); U.S. Census Bureau, Foreign-Born Population (4.7% in 1970; 14.8% peak in 1890)

2 Department of Homeland Security, "Yearbook of Immigration Statistics" (2023); Migration Policy Institute analysis

3 U.S. Department of Labor, "Annual Report of the Commissioner General of Immigration" (1907-1930); Immigration Acts of 1917 and 1924; Historical Statistics of the United States

4 Median sales price of houses sold, annual average of the four quarters: U.S. Census Bureau and HUD, FRED series MSPUS ($23,475 in 1970; $122,300 in 1990; $418,975 in 2024). Median household income: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, Historical Income Tables, Table H-5 ($8,734 in 1970; $29,940 in 1990; $83,730 in 2024). Metro ratios are median home value over median household income: American Community Survey 2024 1-year, Tables B25077, B19013 and B05012, across the 109 metro areas over 500,000 people. The two bases are not interchangeable: value-based ratios run about a point below sale-price ratios

5 U.S. Census Bureau, Historical Census of Housing: Gross Rents (median gross rent $108 in 1970, $447 in 1990); American Community Survey 2024 1-year, Table B25064 ($1,487). Converted to 2024 dollars with BLS Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, annual averages (38.8 in 1970, 130.7 in 1990, 313.689 in 2024), giving $873, $1,073 and $1,487; Apartment List, "How Have Rents Changed Since 1960?" (inflation-adjusted metro rent growth)

6 Annual immigration chart. Green Cards: DHS Office of Homeland Security Statistics, Yearbook of Immigration Statistics 2024, Table 1 (persons obtaining lawful permanent resident status: 249,190 in 1950; 1,535,870 in 1990, inflated by the 1986 amnesty, which peaked at 1,826,600 in 1991; 707,360 in 2020, depressed by the pandemic; 1,364,090 in 2024). Illegal population: DHS OHSS, Estimates of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population Residing in the United States, January 2018 to January 2022 (8.5 million in 2000, 11.6 million in 2010, 10.5 million in January 2020, 10.99 million in January 2022, against an assumed 1990 baseline of 3.5 million). No agency publishes a count of illegal entries per year, so this panel shows the resident population instead. Foreign-born population: U.S. Census Bureau, Historical Census Statistics on the Foreign-Born Population of the United States: 1850 to 2000, Table 1 for 1950 to 2000; American Community Survey 1-year for 2010 and 2024; and the January 2025 Current Population Survey as analysed by the Center for Immigration Studies for the final bar, marked separately because it is a different survey. Per-capita denominators: the 1950 decennial total and FRED POPTHM annual averages thereafter

7 Metro cards. Foreign-born 1990: 1990 Decennial Census, Summary File 3, Table P042. Foreign-born 2024: American Community Survey 2024 1-year, Table B05012. Foreign-born plus their U.S.-born children under 18: American Community Survey 2024 1-year, Table B05009, counting native children living with at least one foreign-born parent. This is a floor rather than a full first-plus-second-generation count, because no Census product records parental birthplace for adults, and there is no 1990 equivalent, since parental birthplace was last tabulated in the 1970 Census. Home prices: 1990 Census SF3 Table H061 (owner-reported median value) and Zillow Home Value Index, third quarter of 2025

8 Limited English proficiency: Migration Policy Institute, Limited English Proficient Individuals in the United States. Naturalization civics and English requirements: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, study materials for the naturalization test

Sources

  1. Foreign-born population: U.S. Census Bureau decennial census (1970-2010) and American Community Survey 2024 one-year estimates; January 2025 is a Center for Immigration Studies analysis of the Current Population Survey and is shown with a dashed connector. Home price-to-income: U.S. Census Bureau and HUD median sales price of houses sold, FRED series MSPUS, annual averages, divided by U.S. Census Bureau median household income. The ratio uses one sale-price and household-income basis throughout 1975-2024.