A Canadian Customs and Excise sign sits in Haut-Richelieu, Quebec, across the U.S.-Canada border as seen from Alburgh, Vermont, on Thursday, January 15, 2026. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger Chittenden County, Vermont’s largest county and the center of the Burlington metropolitan area, has lon g been the state’s most diverse county and the home of many immigrant groups.  But newly released data from the U.S. Census Bureau suggests that international migration to the county has slowed down amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.  The Census Bureau reported that Chittenden County saw a net gain of 220 international migrants between 2024 and 2025. That’s about half the gain the county experienced between 2023 and 2024. Combined with population loss from deaths and domestic migration, Chittenden County lost more than 500 residents between 2024 and 2025 — mirroring Vermont’s population loss over that time period.  Pablo Bose, a University of Vermont professor who studies international migration, said the data was “not at all surprising” given national-level trends in fewer immigrants coming to the United States.  He said the dwindling immigration is tied to President Donald Trump’s immigration policy changes, including the halting of refugee resettlement programs and restrictions on the H-1B worker visa program.  “International migration” in Vermont “has been almost entirely driven by things like the refugee resettlement program,” so the end of those programs would logically result in lowered immigration figures, he said.  Other experts said Trump’s actions may have led to broader fears about the safety and viability of moving to the U.S. for those considering it. Vermont’s Democratic State Treasurer Mike Pieciak said he is concerned about the overall crackdown on immigration into the United States, which in turn could have potential economic impacts for Vermont.  “For example, I hear regularly from Canadians who say, ‘We will not visit Vermont. We’re not going to visit Vermont because of the rhetoric,’” he said in an interview. “Because nobody trusts the country anymore as a reliable partner, but then you also hear people say they feel unsafe to come in.” Canada is the single largest source of immigrants to Vermont, according to Census data.  “You know, if a foreign resident won’t even visit the country for a weekend, they’re not going to move to this country and feel like it’s a safe, welcoming place for them,” Pieciak said. He and other experts said the loss of international migration could harm Vermont, a state with an aging and declining population.  Population loss is a key issue for Kevin Chu, head of the pro-business think tank Vermont Futures Project. The organization has advocated for setting a population goal of 802,000 by 2035 to bolster Vermont’s economy.  Asked about the latest data, he joked, “Is it too cheeky to say I’m net negative?”  “We have the distinction of being the only state to experience both natural population loss and negative net migration,” Chu said.  Immigrants not only offset that population loss, but are more likely to be working-age than their U.S. counterparts, according to American Immigration Council data that Chu cited. They also contributed more than $171 million in state tax revenue in 2023.  Pieciak said that immigrants have played a “key role” in “growing our food, building our housing, powering our manufacturing (and) factories.”  “If you’re in Chittenden County and you go to a manufacturing facility and see the shift change, it’s going to be predominantly new Americans that are clocking in and clocking out,” he said. “They represent, just like this backbone. Sometimes it’s unseen, I think, or unappreciated, broadly across the board, but it’s a critical role.” He criticized U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions targeting workers who are taken off the job site and said the work then doesn’t get done.   “It’s not like there are people waiting to fill those jobs in Vermont or elsewhere across the country,” he said. Chu said immigrants are also disproportionately more likely to fill roles that require advanced degrees and certifications, like health care or the trades. These are “skills that are harder to find locally,” he said via email. Bose noted that the children of immigrants have helped to fill out the classrooms of some Chittenden County schools, countering the decline in enrollment statewide.  International student enrollment has fallen at some Vermont universities, too. The percentage of the University of Vermont’s incoming class of graduate students that came from outside the U.S. fell to 12% in the spring of 2026, compared to 20% of graduate students in 2024, prior to Trump’s second term. Undergraduate students were too small a population to draw any conclusions. “Often international students are full-pay, and they help, in some ways, to subsidize domestic students, especially in-state students,” Chu said. “So there’s sort of this downstream negative impact on affordability for even kids who grow up in Vermont if there are fewer international students enrolling.”  There are some caveats to the latest Census release. One is that the data only captures net immigration, so it includes both new people moving in from abroad and people moving away from the U.S. It’s unclear how much of the change could be due to Vermonters leaving the country.  Anecdotally, advocates have reported an uptick in out-migration of immigrants and refugees. Tino Rutanhira, co-executive director of the Vermont Professionals of Color Network, said via email that some individuals leaving have cited the state’s high cost of living and lack of affordable housing. “Housing is tight and expensive, and people just don’t feel welcome here, and that affects whether they stay,” Rutanhira said. “If we want to reverse these trends, we must align our policies and investments, especially around building more housing, supporting pathways to economic opportunity, and creating an environment where BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) Vermonters feel like Vermont is a place they can call home.” Read the story on VTDigger here: International migration to Chittenden County plummeted last year, new data shows. ...read more read less