Fact check: How many illegal immigrants are there in the US before Trump's second term

1. Summary of the results

Based on the analyses provided, the United States had approximately 14 million unauthorized immigrants as of 2023, representing a record high ^[1]. This figure is consistently reported across multiple sources and represents 27% of all U.S. immigrants ^[2].

The data shows that as of June 2025, there were 51.9 million total immigrants in the U.S., making up 15.4% of the nation's population ^[2]. However, the unauthorized immigrant population appears to have reached its peak in 2023 and may have stopped growing or even declined by the end of 2024 and into 2025 ^[1].

Notably, the overall U.S. immigrant population declined for the first time in over 50 years, shrinking from 53.3 million in January 2025 to 51.9 million in June 2025 ^[3]. Among the unauthorized population, 6 million have some protection from deportation ^[1].

2. Missing context/alternative viewpoints

The original question lacks several important contextual elements:

• Geographic distribution: California has the largest unauthorized immigrant population with approximately 2.3 million, but the question doesn't address how these populations are distributed across states ^[4].
• Policy impact timing: The analyses reveal that more than 100,000 immigrants have been deported since Trump took office, with more than 50,000 currently detained by ICE ^[5]. This suggests the unauthorized population may have been higher before these enforcement actions began.
• Population dynamics: The question assumes a static number, but the data shows the unauthorized population likely continued to increase rapidly through at least mid-2024 before potentially declining ^[1].
• Legal protections: The question doesn't account for the fact that nearly half of the unauthorized population (6 million out of 14 million) has some form of protection from deportation ^[1].

3. Potential misinformation/bias in the original statement

The original question contains an implicit assumption that may be misleading:

• Temporal framing bias: By asking specifically about numbers "before Trump's second term," the question suggests that Trump's policies would significantly alter these numbers, when the data shows the unauthorized population had already reached record highs in 2023 and may have begun declining before his second term policies took full effect ^[1].
• Terminology precision: The use of "illegal immigrants" rather than "unauthorized immigrants" reflects a particular political framing, though both terms refer to the same population in the statistical analyses provided.
• Missing policy context: The question doesn't acknowledge that Trump administration policies focus on both unauthorized immigrants and restrictions on legal immigration ^[6], suggesting the framing may oversimplify the immigration landscape.