Overview
- President Trump shared a Cato chart on plunging asylum entries, and the think tank replied that the graphic tracked legal applicants at ports of entry rather than illegal border crossers.
- The analysis estimates about 72% of the overall decline in entries came from legal pathways, or roughly 132,000 fewer legal entries per month versus about 50,000 fewer illegal entries.
- Legal asylum at official crossings fell 99.9% after the CBP One scheduling app was ended and processing narrowed, dropping from nearly 40,000 in December 2024 to 26 in February 2025.
- Other legal routes also shrank: refugee arrivals fell about 90% with an FY2026 cap of 7,500, immigrant visas dropped by about half, family and fiancé visas by around 65%, student visas by about 40%, and H‑1B issuances by about 25% after new fees and rules.
- Cato notes unlawful crossings had already been falling before 2025, while executive orders, visa bans affecting up to 92 countries, and the Diversity Visa suspension drove deeper cuts to legal migration that outlets across the spectrum are framing in starkly different ways.