Immigration security

Immigration Reform: Disparate Ideas, Disparate Futures

If Donald Trump were to win the presidency and carry out his strident promise to build an impregnable wall along the border with Mexico, both advocates and foes agree, it would turn the United States into a nation quite different from the one they live in.

They don’t know the half of it: Under Mr. Trump’s anti-immigrant proposals, the American population would probably shrink to 323 million by 2024, about one million fewer people than today and 22 million fewer people than the Census Bureau’s projections eight years from now.

There is another side to the story, too: With Hillary Clinton as the next president, the population of the United States is more likely to increase to 360 million in 2024, from 324 million today.