Cato Institute official pushes back after Trump touts its immigration data

The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, is pushing back on President Trump’s claim that its immigration research shows the Trump administration’s handling of the southern border is “the best in the History of the U.S.A.”

The president on Tuesday posted a graph on his Truth Social platform tracking a 99.9 percent decline of legal entries of asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border once Trump took office in January 2025.

“This was put out by the CATO Institute, who hates ‘TRUMP,’ but they can’t hide the facts,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday.

“The Democrats were a DISASTER on the Border, and we were the best in the History of the U.S.A.!” he added.

But in a blog post later on Tuesday, Cato’s director of immigration studies, David Bier, pushed back on Trump’s labeling of Democrats as the “disaster.” He noted that the chart, which only shows legal entries by immigrants, does not say anything about either party’s handling of illegal immigration.

“The people in that chart were going to official ports of entry, declaring themselves, applying for asylum—doing exactly what the law says they’re supposed to do. They were following the rules. That’s what he cut by 99.9 percent—not illegal entries,” Bier wrote in his response to Trump.

“The legal entries weren’t the ‘disaster,'” he continued. “They were a good solution to the ‘disaster’ of illegal immigration.”

The Cato scholar noted that most research suggests that Americans are frustrated with illegal immigration, but “very few Americans say the problem was people coming in legally.”

“If he really wants his followers to have all the facts, we invite him to share the other charts in the piece as well, which show how decimated legal immigration has become under his administration,” the libertarian scholar wrote.

Bier pointed to data showing refugee admissions down by 90 percent; immigrant visas for spouses and minor children of U.S. citizens down by half; student visas down by 40 percent; H-1B visas down by 25 percent; and so-called fiancé visas down by 65 percent.

Cato’s research suggests 72 percent of all cuts to immigration during Trump’s second term have been to legal immigration.

Bier called the president’s claim that he is focused on illegal immigration, not legal immigration, “a useful line” that “lets him present mass deportations and visa bans as reluctant law enforcement rather than what they actually are: a broad ideological campaign against immigration of every type.”

“He doesn’t want people coming the right way any more than the wrong way,” Bier added.

But Bier also denied that the Cato Institute “hates TRUMP,” as the president suggested.

“To be clear, we routinely praise him when he deserves it, as Trump has recognized, but criticize him when he undermines individual liberty—like we do with all presidents,” Bier wrote.

The Hill has reached out to the White House for a response.

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