After The Border: Exclusive Data Reveals How Unprecedented Border Crossings Reshaped America

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Data obtained exclusively by The Associated Press paints a picture of who these migrants are and where they went. They transformed blocks, neighborhoods and cities in places that have long been magnets for immigrants and in smaller communities that would become new American melting pots.

AP’s analysis is based on federal records giving the self-reported destinations of 4.5 million migrants released in the United States after crossing the Mexican border — both legally and illegally — between October 2018 and July 2025.

It provides both a sweeping and an unusually granular look at how the immigration surge — one that peaked during President Joe Biden’s administration and was a major reason voters returned his predecessor, Donald Trump, to the White House — is playing out today.

While Florida was the most popular state overall, Latin American immigrants increasingly looked elsewhere for more promising job prospects and better quality of life. Many turned to places with small but established communities of immigrants from their homelands.

For Cubans, nine of the top 10 destination ZIP codes were in Florida, but people of the Caribbean nation also flocked to less populated areas in Kentucky, Nebraska and Texas.

Colombians went to the Denver suburb of Aurora. Paterson, New Jersey, was the top pick among Peruvians.

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