Washington

TheTrump administration said that more than three million migrants have left the United States since President Donald Trump returned to office, as the White House unveiled a sweeping assessment of its immigration crackdown, including a sharp decline in border crossings, mass deportations and tighter restrictions on legal immigration.

In a statement titled "How President Trump ended the border invasion and restored American sovereignty", the White House claimed that the population of immigrants living illegally in the country had fallen by at least 2.3 million, describing it as the largest sustained reduction in modern American history.

The administration said nearly 1.2 million people had been deported or removed, while immigration authorities had carried out approximately 1.3 million arrests.

The figures were presented as part of the administration's assessment of its immigration policies and were not accompanied by a comprehensive independent audit.

According to the White House, illegal crossings at the southern border fell by 95 per cent from levels recorded during the Biden administration. It said nationwide immigration encounters dropped below 380,000 during fiscal year 2026, compared with approximately 2.7 million annually under Biden.

The administration also claimed that no migrants apprehended by the Border Patrol were released into the United States during the fiscal year, describing it as an unprecedented enforcement outcome. The White House said the immigration court backlog had fallen from more than 4.18 million cases to fewer than 3.09 million.

The reduction followed changes in immigration court procedures, enforcement policies and the handling of pending cases.

However, a decline in the backlog does not necessarily indicate that all affected cases were resolved through final decisions on their merits.

The statement also highlighted a sharp fall in asylum approvals, saying the approval rate had declined to approximately seven per cent from more than 50 per cent during the previous administration. The White House attributed the change to tougher eligibility assessments and enforcement measures.

Turning to legal immigration, the administration said it had revoked more than 300,000 visas since Trump returned to office. The revocations included thousands of student visas and visas linked to suspected misuse of immigration programmes, according to the statement.

The administration also cited new restrictions on H-1B employment visas, a category widely used by Indian technology professionals.

It said a $100,000 payment requirement had been introduced for certain H-1B petitions, while the previous random selection system had been replaced with a process intended to favour higher-skilled and better-paid workers.

The White House claimed that H-1B registrations for fiscal year 2027 had declined by 38 per cent under the revised system. The administration also highlighted the termination of automatic extensions for certain employment authorisation documents and tighter requirements for foreign students and exchange visitors.