Overall immigration to the United States, if not reduced, is set to drive the nation’s foreign-born share of the population to records not seen since in over a century, the New York Times admits.
In 1890, the foreign-born share of the U.S. population stood at a record 14.8 percent. According to the Times, current legal and illegal immigration levels — more than 1.5 million legal immigrants and hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens arrive each year — are on pace to match and potentially outpace that record high.
Stated another way, foreign-born residents could begin to account for 3 in 20 of all U.S. residents. Already, the nation’s foreign-born population continues to hit historic highs, now standing at 46.2 million. Compare that figure to 1970, when the foreign-born population was just 9.6 million.
The Times reports:
As of December, immigrants represented 14.1 percent of the U.S. population, matching the peak of the decades-long immigration boom that began in the 1960s and approaching the record 14.8 percent seen in 1890, shortly before large numbers of Europeans began disembarking from vessels at Ellis Island. [Emphasis added]
The foreign-born population is increasingly concentrated among middle-age groups, with a large number of immigrants having lived in the United States for many years. About 1 in 5 Americans between the ages of 40 and 64 was born overseas. And two-thirds of foreign-born residents have been in the country more than a decade, the census data shows. [Emphasis added]
…
If immigration returns to even its relatively modest pre-pandemic pace, it is possible the share of Americans born overseas could reach the record 14.8 percent from 1890. [Emphasis added]
U.S. Census Bureau data released last year showed that the nation’s population has hit a record 331.9 million, driven mostly by legal immigration levels that have gone unreduced in more than five decades.
Previously, the agency projected that overall immigration will bring the U.S. population to more than 400 million by 2060, when 1 in 6 residents will be foreign-born.
The U.S. population does not have to rapidly increase to record highs. In the past, legal immigration moratoriums have been implemented. Research has shown that halting all immigration to the U.S. would stabilize the population to a comfortable 329 million residents in the next four decades.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.