More people are moving out of the U.S. than moving in for the first time since the Great Depression—a bad omen for the $38.8 trillion national debt

In just one year, the Trump administration’s highly visible crusade against immigration has brought new entries into the U.S. to a grinding halt. The demographic consequences are already starting to show up in economic data, and could soon worsen the increasingly dire state of the nation’s $38.8 trillion (and growing) national debt. 

Net international migration to the U.S. peaked at 2.7 million new entries in 2024, but has since sharply declined. It fell to 1.3 million last summer, according to January Census data...