Thread by @Noahpinion

1/A little over two years into his presidency, how has Donald Trump affected immigration to the United States?

Answer: He has reduced it.

2/Trump has dramatically curbed the number of refugees that the country accepts each year. This is usually around 70,000 or 80,000 per year; in fiscal year 2019 it will be 30,000.
vox.com/2018/9/17/1787…

3/Note that this is the *ceiling* on how many refugees can be admitted; the actual number tends to be lower. (Except for Europe!)

npr.org/2018/12/27/680…

4/The denial rate for H-1b visas has increased from 4% in 2016 to 18% in the first quarter of 2019.

wired.com/story/h-1b-vis…

5/The number of H-1b petitions approved by USCIS dropped dramatically from 2016 to 2017.
uscis.gov/sites/default/…

6/The number of student visas issues to international students declined substantially in 2018.
investopedia.com/news/impact-tr…

7/And international enrollments have fallen.

insidehighered.com/news/2018/11/1…

8/Illegal immigration has also fallen.

(You hear about a flood of people being apprehended at the border, but most of these are asking for asylum instead of trying to sneak into the country.)

forbes.com/sites/stuartan…

9/The number of lawful permanent residencies granted in the U.S. was still at a high level in 2017, though down from a peak in 2016.
dhs.gov/sites/default/…

10/It'll take a while for data on 2018 and 2019 to come out. But Trump is stepping up green card denials, so it seems likely the # of green cards granted has also been falling.

nytimes.com/2018/09/22/us/…

11/So Trump's anti-immigration efforts are eating away at every type of immigration to the U.S. - legal and illegal, economic and refugee, low-skilled and high-skilled.

So far, however, the changes have been marginal. Trump is making only modest headway.

12/To cause a major collapse in immigration to the U.S. would take far more drastic steps than the diffuse campaign of minor restrictions that Trump has so far unleashed.

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