AP obtains data on 4.5 million migrants in the US — TimesLIVE
The Associated Press obtained federal records on the initial destinations of 4.5 million migrants who were released into the United States after crossing the border with Mexico legally or illegally. The data cover the period from October 2018 to July 2025.
As TimesLIVE reports, AP obtained the information through a Freedom of Information Act request. The records include ZIP codes of addresses provided by migrants, their country of citizenship, age, sex, as well as the date and section of the border where they were recorded by US authorities.
Migration destinations
According to AP, over the past decade, people from more than 150 countries have arrived in the United States, and the country’s immigrant population has reached its highest level. Although most migrants traditionally came from Mexico and Central America, the new influx included people from India, Ecuador and Ghana, among other countries.
Migrants often chose New York and Miami, but an increasing number headed to smaller cities with less developed immigrant communities. The report mentions Elkhart, Indiana; Knoxville, Tennessee; and Dodge City, Kansas. In one year, border authorities recorded migrants from 174 countries. In Cincinnati, many of the arrivals were from West Africa, Uzbekistan and India.
More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.
Significant arrivals of at least 25 nationalities were recorded in the New York borough of Queens. More than 7,000 people arrived from each of Ecuador, China, Colombia, Venezuela and India. In Philadelphia, at least 1,000 new arrivals were recorded from 11 countries, including Brazil, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Russia and Venezuela.
Women and children
Nearly six in ten migrants released at the border were women and children. This differs from the situation several years earlier, when men predominated among migrants. Mexican women and children often headed to Tulsa, Oklahoma; Ecuadorian women and children to Spring Valley, New York; and women from Guatemala to Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Florida remained the most popular state overall. Chinese migrants mostly chose New York, primarily Queens and Brooklyn, or areas of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. AP cautions that some people may not have arrived at the listed addresses, may have moved to other parts of the United States, or may have left the country. Immigration arrests affected Miami and New York, among other places, while Silicon Valley, Madison and Stamford received less attention from authorities.
