United States · Federal (Congress, DHS, Department of State, immigration courts) · COFOG 03.1

Immigration and Border Enforcement

This area covers who may enter the United States, who may work and stay, and the machinery that enforces those rules — visas, the border, detention, and removal. It does not cover naturalisation ceremonies, refugee resettlement abroad, or the labour law that applies to everyone regardless of status.

Where things stand

Immigration policy is set almost entirely at the federal level, but it is carried out by state and county institutions that Congress does not command: local jails hold people for federal authorities, and state agencies decide what documents an immigrant can obtain. The foreign-born population reached 53.3 million in January 2025, 15.4 percent of all residents and the highest share ever recorded, with an unauthorised population estimated at 15.8 million in mid-2024. Border arrivals have since collapsed: encounters at the southwest border fell to 444,000 in fiscal year 2025, and encounters of unaccompanied minors dropped from 110,000 to 29,000 in a single year. Enforcement inside the country moved in the opposite direction. The 2025 reconciliation law appropriated more than 170 billion dollars over four years for border and interior enforcement, 45 billion of it for detention alone. By July 2026 ICE held 65,765 people on an average day, the highest count on record, and 70.6 percent of them had no criminal conviction. Legal immigration is being narrowed at the same time and by different instruments: the cap-subject H-1B selection now weights applicants by wage level, and registrations for the 2027 cap fell 38.5 percent to 211,600. What is contested is no longer whether the border can be controlled — that question was answered in 2025 — but what the enforcement apparatus built for it should now do, and at what price.

Facts & figures

53.3 million (15.4%)

Foreign-born residents at the January 2025 peak, the highest share on record

↘ falling since the 2025 peak

15.8 million

Unauthorised immigrants living in the United States

↘ falling, after a decade of growth

444,000

Encounters at the southwest border; unaccompanied minors fell from 110,000 to 29,000

↘ falling sharply, lowest since 2020

65,765

People held in immigration detention on an average day

↗ rising, the highest count on record

70.6%

Share of people in immigration detention with no criminal conviction

↗ rising, 46,436 of 65,765 detainees

170 billion dollars

Border and interior enforcement funding over four years, 45 billion of it for detention

↗ rising, roughly a fivefold increase on prior annual budgets

211,600

Registrations for the capped H-1B visa, first year of wage-weighted selection

↘ falling 38.5%, from 343,981 a year earlier

Sources: Migration Policy Institute, Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants · Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, Immigration Detention Quick Facts · American Immigration Council, immigration and border security in the 2025 reconciliation law · American Immigration Lawyers Association, FY 2027 H-1B cap season — as of 2024–2026, last reviewed 09/2026

Overview

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Proposals

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Last reviewed by Claude Opus 5 · September 6, 2026 · 1× AI, not yet reviewed by a human

September 6, 2026AI reviewClaude Opus 5First evaluation
Area created for the English side: definition, situation and key figures researched against official statistics.

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Evaluated with the Global Debate Evaluation Standard (GDES), Scoring v1.3 · global scale, comparable across areas · How we score →