President Donald Trump's second term has been defined in no small part by his crackdown on illegal immigration.
Border crossings have plunged, deportations have dominated headlines, and the administration has made it abundantly clear that the Biden-era approach to immigration is over.
But something else has been happening, largely outside the national spotlight.
Trump isn't merely reducing illegal immigration. His administration is sharply curtailing legal immigration, too. And the numbers suggest that the changes are far more sweeping than many Americans realize.
The surprising source of this revelation is the libertarian Cato Institute, which has spent years criticizing Trump's immigration policies.
In an October 8 analysis, Cato's director of immigration studies, David J. Bier, examined government data covering the administration's first year and found that reductions in legal entries dwarfed the corresponding decline in illegal entries.
"Monthly legal entries had actually fallen 2.7 times more than illegal entries through February 2026," Bier wrote.
That is quite a statistic. And it raises an interesting question about whether Trump's immigration agenda represents something much bigger than a crackdown on unlawful border crossings.
According to Cato, monthly entries across major legal immigration categories declined by approximately 144,569, compared with a reduction of 53,128 in illegal entries.
In other words, roughly 73 percent of the combined decline came from legal immigration.
"Illegal entries had already fallen before President Trump took office, and while they have fallen further, declines in legal immigration far surpass those in illegal entries," Bier explained.
I predicted this outcome as soon as he came into office because it was obvious all along that his admin's antipathy toward immigrants wasn't about their lack of legality. Here's the comparison of December 2024 and February 2026: https://t.co/pVEgcxMRoG https://t.co/Rl20pSDUEf
— David J. Bier (@David_J_Bier) October 9, 2026
Trump has dramatically changed who gets permission to enter the United States, including people applying through established legal channels.
Cato estimates that immigrant visa entries for prospective permanent residents have fallen by approximately half. The administration imposed country-specific restrictions affecting dozens of nations, suspended the Diversity Visa Lottery and introduced additional restrictions on immigrant visa processing.
The effects extend to family immigration, traditionally one of the largest components of America's legal immigration system.
Visas for foreign fiancés and certain spouses of American citizens fell 61 percent between February 2024 and February 2026.
That's not a trifling administrative matter. It is a substantial reduction in the number of people receiving visas to join their American partners.
Then there are international students. Student visa issuances were down 42 percent over the same period, according to Cato.
The administration tightened screening, temporarily suspended student visa processing during part of the 2025 application season and restricted admissions from certain countries. It has also pursued changes affecting how long foreign students can remain in the United States and their ability to work after graduation.
These developments represent a major departure from the decades-long practice of American universities recruiting students from around the world.
Then there is the increasingly controversial H-1B program.
Cato found that H-1B visas, together with H-4 visas issued to qualifying family members, declined by a staggering 78 percent compared with February 2024.
Seventy-eight percent.
Trump's administration has targeted the program with substantial fees and other restrictions, including a $100,000 charge associated with certain petitions for newly hired foreign workers.
The Department of Homeland Security reported that the fee reduced affected filings by 91 percent, according to Bier's analysis.
The policy has faced legal challenges, and the administration has pursued additional fee measures following a court ruling against the original charge.
But the broader message to employers is unmistakable: Bringing foreign workers into the United States is going to be more difficult and expensive.
For conservatives who have complained that major corporations exploit H-1B visas to undercut American workers, this represents one of the administration's biggest policy shifts.
Cato also reports that refugee admissions fell by nearly 90 percent, while legal entries by asylum seekers at southwest border ports of entry collapsed by 99.9 percent.
That last figure is striking. In December 2024, nearly 40,000 asylum seekers entered through the southwest border's legal processing channels. By February 2026, the number had fallen to just 26.
The administration eliminated the Biden-era CBP One appointment system and imposed sweeping restrictions on asylum processing at the border.
Marco Rubio announced its departure from the previous regime with a blunt statement on visas.
SECRETARY RUBIO: I've said this repeatedly. I don't know why it's so hard for some to comprehend it. No one is entitled to a visa. If you enter our country as a visitor and undertake activities against the national interests of the United States, we will take away your visa. https://t.co/Y9hWlZpKBX
— Department of State (@StateDept) February 16, 2026
"No one is entitled to a visa," he said.
The Trump policy changes have come at a critical time. And they are not just triggering radicals, but self-described “libertarians.”
Bier argues that Trump's restrictions are harming American families, reducing economic prosperity and increasing federal deficits.
"These cuts to legal immigration are harming US citizens seeking to reunite with their spouses, fiancés, children, and other relatives," he wrote. "They are also undermining US prosperity and increasing the US deficit."
He goes further, arguing that the administration's immigration policy has been misunderstood.
"It is not about stopping 'illegal' immigration. It is a broader assault on all types of immigration.”
But the “libertarian” think tank is ignoring the pernicious influence of the modern welfare state on the immigration picture.
The Center for Immigration Studies, which generally advocates lower immigration levels, examined the 2024 Survey of Income and Program Participation and reported that 53 percent of immigrant-headed households used at least one major welfare program, compared with 37 percent of households headed by U.S.-born residents.
The group's estimate for households headed by legal immigrants was 51 percent.
There is nothing “libertarian” about allowing legal and illegal immigrants into the country to drain America’s treasury.
Between Donald Trump’s anti-immigration policies and his moves to rein in the size of the government bureaucracy, he may be the most libertarian president since Calvin Coolidge.
