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America is uniquely ill-suited to handle a falling population

Which is a worry, because much of it is already shrinking

And in the past year or so, according to estimates published in January by the Congressional Budget Office, immigration has increased, largely owing to people crossing the southern border illegally. Yet much of the recent slowdown in America’s population growth dates to Mr Trump’s presidency when, even before the pandemic, net migration fell by a quarter as his administration deliberately gummed up the immigration services. Driving your correspondent around Cairo, Phillip Matthews, the chairman of the Democratic Party in Alexander County, lists services that have been cut over the years: public housing closed, government offices moved, schools shut down.

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