major increase that still falls well short of estimates from President Donald Trump and some critics of immigration. The Pew Research Center's closely watched gauge rose from 11.8 million a year earlier and surpassed the previous high of 12.2 million in 2007. The increase was driven by some six million who were in the country with some form of legal protection. Trump has stripped many of those protections since taking office in January.

Pew, whose estimates date back to 1990, said that, while 2023 is its latest full analysis, preliminary findings show the number rose in 2024, though at a slower rate after then-President Joe Biden severely restricted asylum at the border in June of that year. The number dropped this year under Trump, but is still likely above 14 million.

The overall US immigrant population, regardless of legal status, reached an all-time high of more than 53 million in January 2025, accounting for a record 15.8 per cent of the US population. The number has since dropped, which Pew said would be the first time it has shrunk since the 1960s. While the findings are unlikely to settle debate, Pew's report is one of the most complete attempts to measure illegal immigration. Nearly all the increase came from countries other than Mexico. Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and India accounted for the largest numbers after Mexico. Totals from Venezuela, Cuba, Colombia, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Ukraine and Peru each more than doubled in two years. (Jamaica Gleaner)