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Which countries had the highest number of immigrants entering the US during Trump's first term?
Executive Summary
The central claim across the supplied analyses is that Mexico was the largest country of origin for people entering or residing in the United States during the early portion of Donald Trump’s presidency, with several sources also naming China, the Philippines, India and Central American countries as prominent origins depending on the metric used. Different datasets cited in the analyses—DHS tables on returns and lawful permanent resident flows, naturalizations, and reporting on unauthorized populations—produce varying rank orders because they measure distinct populations (returns, lawful permanent residents, naturalizations, unauthorized residents) rather than a single “immigrants entering” count [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. What advocates and documents actually claimed — parsing the competing assertions
The submissions present three overlapping but distinct claims: one dataset asserts Mexico, China and the Philippines had the most entries based on a DHS table covering 2017–2019; another cites 2022 lawful permanent resident data showing Mexico, India, China, the Philippines and Vietnam among top last-residence countries; and reporting on unauthorized populations emphasizes Mexico and Northern Triangle countries (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras) as principal origins of unauthorized migrants [1] [2] [4]. These claims are not mutually exclusive because each source is answering a different question—returns, admissions to LPR status, naturalizations, or estimates of unauthorized stock—and each metric highlights different origin countries. The apparent clustering of Mexico near the top across metrics is the clearest consistent thread [1] [2] [4].
2. The DHS returns and admissions narrative that led to Mexico, China, Philippines headline
A DHS table cited in the analyses reports large counts for Mexico (roughly 39,803 in 2017 rising to 49,633 in 2019) alongside increases from China and the Philippines in those years; the table is framed as “Aliens Returned by Region and Country of Nationality” and therefore captures returns rather than final lawful status, which can skew interpretation if read as arrivals [1]. Another DHS-derived table on lawful permanent residents for fiscal year 2022 lists Mexico, India, China and the Philippines among top last-residence countries, showing that Mexico consistently ranks high across DHS product lines but the year and metric matter: returns versus new lawful permanent residents versus naturalizations each tell different policy-relevant stories [2] [3].
3. Unauthorized population and deportation-focused reporting that highlights Central America
Analyses drawing from reporting and later DHS summaries emphasize that nearly half of the unauthorized immigrant population historically originated in Mexico, and that the Northern Triangle accounted for a large share of apprehensions and deportations, making Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras prominent in enforcement data [4] [5]. These sources underscore that when the question shifts to unauthorized entries, enforcement encounters, or deportations, Central American countries become more prominent relative to East and South Asian origins, which dominate lawful admission and naturalization statistics. That divergence reflects distinct migration channels — family- or employment-based legal flows on one hand and asylum/irregular land-border movement on the other [4] [5].
4. Why different metrics produce different “top countries” — data and definitional limits
The analyses repeatedly note that tables of returns, lawful permanent resident admissions, and naturalizations are each snapshots of different processes: returns reflect enforcement outcomes, LPR admissions reflect immigration policy and visa allocations, and naturalizations reflect longer-term settlement and eligibility [1] [3]. Temporal coverage differs across the supplied analyses—some cite 2017–2019, others cite 2022 or mid‑2023 summaries—so apparent increases or shifts (for example, Chinese and Philippine counts rising) may be artifacts of year selection, processing backlogs, or changing admissions priorities, not necessarily sudden migration surges [1] [2] [3]. The consistent methodological caveat across sources is that no single dataset in the packet definitively answers “which countries had the highest number of immigrants entering the US during Trump’s first term” without specifying which flow is measured [1].
5. Bottom line: the best-supported answer and what remains uncertain
Across the provided analyses, the most robust, recurring finding is that Mexico was the top country of origin by multiple measures during 2017–2019, while China, the Philippines, India and several Central American countries appear prominently depending on whether one tracks returns, lawful admissions, naturalizations, or unauthorized population estimates [1] [2] [3] [4]. What remains unresolved in the packet is a single, consistent numeric ranking for “immigrants entering” during Trump’s first term because the materials conflate different indicators and years; to settle that precisely requires selecting a specific metric (e.g., arrivals, admissions to LPR status, or apprehensions) and a consistent time window before producing a definitive ranked list [1] [3].