The Cato Institute spent years pushing for more immigration.
Donald Trump just used their own research to prove he shut it down.
And Donald Trump used a pro-immigration think tank’s own graph to show one shocking fact about immigration from Muslim countries.
From 22,000 a Month to Nearly Zero
The White House's official X account dropped a Cato Institute graph showing legal immigration from Muslim-majority countries has fallen 96 percent since Trump took office in January 2025.
At its peak – conveniently timed between July and October 2024, during Biden's final months – immigration from those nations topped 22,000 people per month.
By January 2025, it was almost zero.
The reaction from Republicans was immediate.
"Absolutely incredible victory for the American people, thanks to POTUS," said Rep. Brandon Gill of Texas.
"4 percent to go! Thank you, President Trump," said Rep. Randy Fine of Florida.
"Vote like Western Civilization depends on it, because it does," added Turning Point USA's Andrew Kolvet.
They're right to celebrate.
This isn't a fluke or a rounding error – this is the direct result of Trump reversing Biden's open-door immigration surge the moment he took office.
Biden spent four years flooding the country with record-high immigration numbers, including from countries whose nationals the federal government cannot properly vet.
Trump reversed it in a matter of months.
This Policy Already Survived the Supreme Court
The Left is going to scream "Muslim ban" – they always do.
But here's what actually happened: in June 2018, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Trump v. Hawaii that Trump's travel restrictions from Muslim-majority countries were entirely legal.
Chief Justice John Roberts concluded the government had provided sufficient national security justification and that the policy passed constitutional scrutiny.
No court has ruled Trump's current immigration restrictions illegal – there have been district court challenges, but the Supreme Court has already told the country how this argument ends.
https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/2105025074340524315?s=20
The Cato Institute researcher whose graph the White House posted – David Bier – shot back that Trump was "violating the law and harming Americans."
His opinion is not a court ruling.
His frustration is not a legal finding.
And Trump's second term operates under the same constitutional authority the Supreme Court already blessed.
The People Screaming Loudest Created This Problem
Ben Larrabee from Turning Point Action put it best: "The next time you get the urge to 'punish the GOP,' remember that Democrats will reverse this overnight."
He's exactly right – and that's the part the midterm-skeptic crowd needs to hear.
The midterms are five weeks away.
Every seat the Democrats flip returns America to what that Biden-era graph looked like: 22,000 per month, no vetting, no accountability, no end in sight.
The conservatives grumbling about grocery prices and the Iran situation – understandable grievances, real ones – need to look at that graph and ask themselves what a Democratic House looks like for immigration enforcement.
The answer is the Biden years.
Democrats don't tweak these policies at the margins.
They reverse them completely and call anyone who objects a bigot.
That's not a prediction – that's a track record.
What Trump Actually Built
Trump didn't just slow the numbers – he responded every time the threat got clearer.
In December 2025, after an Afghan national was charged with shooting two U.S. National Guard members in Washington, D.C., the administration added 20 more countries to the banned list.
That's not a travel restriction – that's a government that updates its response when Americans get shot.
Biden's government responded to the same kinds of threats by calling the people who raised them racists.
That number – from 22,000 a month to nearly zero – came from Cato's own database.
When even your harshest critics' data proves you right, you've won the argument.
That's what winning looks like.
Sources:
- Peter D'Abrosca, "Republican glee erupts as White House boasts sharp decline in immigration from Muslim-majority nations," Fox News, September 30, 2026.
- David Bier, "Trump Has Cut Legal Immigration More Than Illegal Immigration," Cato Institute, 2026.
- Trump v. Hawaii, 585 U.S. 667 (2018), Supreme Court of the United States, June 26, 2018.
- "Trump 2.0's year one: reshaping US legal immigration," Real Instituto Elcano, 2026.
