In 2024, the US foreign-born population increased to 51 million, making up a historically high 15.4 percent of the total population. While surging illegal immigration provoked political backlash, a new AEI Economic Perspectives report from Pia M. Orrenius, Alan D. Viard, and Madeline Zavodny charts the significant fiscal benefits of increased immigration and highlights the economic costs of the administration’s anti-immigration approach.

Republicans’ reconciliation legislation included a massive $170 billion investment in border security, funding the border wall and turning Immigration and Customs Enforcement into the single largest federal law enforcement agency. With the border secured, Philip Wallach argues that Donald Trump and Republicans should seize this opportunity to purse a politically popular, lasting settlement to America’s broken immigration system.

President Trump’s use of US soldiers for domestic law enforcement is just one example of how his administration is increasingly disregarding norms around the military’s political neutrality. In an essay adapted from her forthcoming book, The State and the Soldier: A History of Civil-Military Relations in the United States, AEI Foreign and Defense Policy Director Kori Schake highlights the serious risk of eroding Americans’ trust in the armed forces.

It is especially important for the American military to continue to be seen as a xxxxxx of democracy in a moment when authoritarian regimes around the world are increasing their threat to the free world. Dalibor Rohac warns that Russia’s incursion into Poland this week demands a response from the United States and its allies that demonstrates NATO’s resolve against escalating aggression.

While the average college degree is still worth the cost, too many higher education programs fail to deliver value and economic mobility for their students. In a new collection of six reports, Preston Cooper and a bipartisan group of experts offer six paths universities and policymakers can pursue, including accreditation reform and risk sharing on student debt, to build on the accountability reforms Congress passed in July.