Since its earliest days, the U.S. has been a nation of immigrants. Increasingly, it’s also a nation of emigrants — a trend that should alarm elected officials and spur them to act.

A recent analysis found that U.S. emigration has reached unprecedented levels. Much of this exodus is due to the administration’s deportation efforts, but by no means all. Last year, at least 180,000 American citizens left the Land of Opportunity to find a better life elsewhere.

During the recession of 2008, a Gallup poll found that about 1 in 10 Americans wanted to permanently leave the country. That figure is now 1 in 5. Among women ages 15 to 44, it’s a whopping 40%. Some of that sentiment is tied to politics, of course, but the emigration trend predates the current administration.

When the American Dream is to leave America, something has gone terribly wrong.

Traditionally, Americans have chosen to become expats for professional reasons, often temporarily. But in growing numbers, they’re doing so for personal reasons, as they seek better schools, safer streets, lower taxes, and more affordable housing and health care. Requests by Americans to renounce their citizenship have soared.

The rise in such émigrés is an indictment of both major parties, and it should be a wake-up call to elected officials. Remote work is helping other nations compete for talent and giving workers more choices, while U.S. policy and governance failures are giving them more reasons to leave. If that continues, America risks becoming a weaker and less dynamic country.

This problem could partly be mitigated if the U.S. were capitalizing on its strong appeal to immigrants, as it historically has. Nowadays, it isn’t: The administration has narrowed the avenues for legal immigration and drastically reduced refugee levels. In 2025, more Americans moved to Germany and Ireland than Germans and Irish moved to America.

The White House has touted the migration reversal as evidence that its crackdown on illegal immigration — reducing illegal border crossings, increasing deportations, and paying and pressuring unauthorized migrants to return home — is working. But taken together, these developments — rising numbers of exiles and émigrés coupled with declining numbers of newcomers — have created some troubling indicators: Last year, more people may have left the country than entered it for the first time since the Great Depression. And for the first time in the country’s 250-year history, the U.S. may well see a decline in population this year.

Should those trends continue, they will likely exacerbate the economic problems that come with demographic decline. A flattening or declining population is likely to suppress demand, reduce growth, hinder innovation and place a growing burden on younger workers, as other fast-aging countries can attest. One recent study found that lower net migration levels reduced growth by up to .3% last year, and a further reduction is expected this year.

Far from grappling with these worrying developments, the administration is worsening them. February’s weaker-than-expected employment report, showing a decline of 92,000 jobs, was partly a reflection of heedless deportation policy, which has contracted the supply of qualified and willing workers, including for construction, manufacturing and agricultural jobs. That’s a good way to raise business costs while dampening growth.

The U.S. needs more workers of every kind, including the skilled and college-educated workers who make up a large portion of the growing crowd of émigrés. Until elected officials open more legal avenues for immigrants to come — and tackle the conditions that are leading more citizens to leave — American workers and businesses will suffer the consequences.

____

The Editorial Board publishes the views of the editors across a range of national and global affairs.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com/opinion. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.