Chicago’s immigrant population is at its highest point in nearly two decades.

That’s according to new census data released as President Donald Trump’s administration continues its stepped-up deportation campaign in the Chicago area.

An estimated 597,415 immigrants — a diverse group of Chicagoans born outside the United States — comprise about 22% of the city’s population, according to 2024 data just released by the Census Bureau.

That count of the immigrant population count was the highest in Chicago since 2006. It bucks the trend of a slow but relatively steady decline over the past two decades.

Between 2023 and 2024, the city’s immigrant population increased by about 7% while the city’s overall population increased by just 2%, and the native-born population grew by less than 1%.

“Immigrants are still arriving in Chicago, and we’re pulling our weight with respect to helping the city of Chicago grow its population,” said Fred Tsao, senior policy counsel for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

The data are from the newest release of results from last year’s American Community Survey, an annual survey of more than 3.5 million households nationwide that provides detailed social, housing and demographic estimates. The census bureau began providing annual estimates from the survey in 2005.

The census release comes amid the deployment of more than 200 federal agents in the Chicago area as part of a deportation campaign, dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz,” by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Since Monday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have made a handful of arrests around Chicago, from the South Side to the west suburbs.

“Ultimately, I would say anybody that is a noncitizen in any way or form is at risk at this time,” said Antonio Gutierrez, a strategic coordinator for the group Organized Communities Against Deportations.

In Chicago, an estimated 323,548 noncitizens made up about 12% of the population. In the metro area, 867,369 noncitizens made up about 9% of the population, according to the census data.

Noncitizens include foreign-born people with legal status, like green card or student visa-holders, and people without legal status. The census bureau survey does not ask about the legal status of foreign-born people.

There are few estimates of the number of noncitizens without legal status in Chicago. A report published in 2014 by Tsao and Chicago demographer Rob Paral estimated that 7% of the city’s population didn’t have legal status.

Tsao said that percentage likely still holds today. Applied to the city’s population in 2024, the result would suggest there are at least 190,000 immigrants living without legal status in Chicago.

The recent increase in the immigrant population is largely driven by a rise in the noncitizen population, which grew by 12%, or roughly 34,000 people, from 2023 to 2024.

This annual census release doesn’t provide enough details to clearly see what might be driving the increase. But advocates believe the thousands of asylum-seekers, primarily from Venezuela, contributed to the growth. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott bused tens of thousands migrants to the Chicago area, starting in 2022.

Chicagoans born in Venezuela saw the second-largest total increase among the foreign-born population, growing from an estimated 7,175 in 2023 to 19,409 in 2024 — a roughly 170% increase. The largest increase was among the population of Chicagoans born in Mexico, up from 207,848 to 227,715 during that same period, for an increase of 9%.

“The Venezuelan community in Chicago and the entire state of Illinois is hiding, living in fear and is looking for extreme and rapid solution for the immediate future,” said Ana Gil Garcia, who is on the board of the Illinois Venezuelan Alliance. “They cannot go to work. They have to remain at home.”

Those concerns are palpable for some, like Carolina, who agreed to an interview on the condition her full name not be published because she fears deportation. Carolina arrived in Chicago from Venezuela in 2022.

“Right now, we are a little scared,” she said. “We are not sending my grandchild to school.”

The 2024 census estimates paint a portrait of a diverse immigrant population embedded in the city’s economy, schools and communities.

Foreign-born residents participated in the labor force at similar rates to the native-born population; about 35% of school-age children in Chicago, an estimated 166,792 children, had at least one immigrant parent, and about 66% of foreign-born Chicagoans entered the country more than 15 years ago.

“Deportations are not isolated instances in our communities, either,” Gutierrez said. “They take our parents, students, and individuals from a community that unfortunately impacts all of us.”

Contributing: Adriana Cardona-Maguigad