What was the Biden administration's impact on immigration in FY2024
Executive summary
The Biden administration in FY2024 combined aggressive executive actions, new parole and asylum-processing programs, and regional enforcement diplomacy with Mexico to drive down recorded border encounters from the prior year and reshape legal pathways — while simultaneously drawing criticism from both immigrant-rights advocates and conservatives who said the approach either replicated Trump-like enforcement or invited disorder [1] [2] [3]. Metrics highlight both movement and contradiction: encounters fell to about 2.1 million in FY2024 and the administration tallied hundreds of new immigration-focused executive actions even as Congress failed to pass legalization for the estimated 11.3 million unauthorized residents [1] [4] [2].
1. A shift in tactics: "carrot-and-stick" yields fewer encounters but more parole and processing
The administration’s FY2024 border strategy emphasized legal alternatives and partnerships — expanding parole programs, launching the CBP One scheduling app, and pressing Mexico and other regional partners into enforcement roles — and officials and analysts attribute a 14 percent drop in southwest border encounters to that combined approach, with encounters reported at about 2.1 million for FY2024 [1] [3]. DHS and CBP also reported operational metrics showing sharp month-to-month declines after executive actions in June 2024, including claims of a 60 percent decrease in encounters between ports of entry from May to December and increased expedited removals and repatriation flights [5]. At the same time MPI estimated the administration had allowed millions — about 5.7 million by May through illegal crossings or parole programs — to pursue cases or be lawfully paroled, underscoring that reduced encounters did not mean an end to large-scale movement [1].
2. Executive activism and modernization — record volume, contested outcomes
Biden’s team advanced a historically large number of immigration-related executive actions — MPI counted hundreds of such measures (605 by one December count) — aimed at modernizing visa processes, interior enforcement priorities, and humanitarian pathways, and legal immigration rebounded from pandemic lows in several dimensions [4] [6] [3]. The administration announced targeted administrative reforms to let certain applicants adjust status without leaving the U.S. and expanded refugee and parole pathways [7] [3], but those administrative moves could not substitute for legislation to legalize millions, a shortfall repeatedly noted by MPI and others [2] [4].
3. Enforcement uptick and political messaging — more removals, contested figures
DHS and CBP materials reported a rise in removals and expedited processing after June 2024 actions — including DHS saying more than 271,000 people were removed or returned from June 5–December — and that percentage processed for expedited removal tripled, with fewer Border Patrol releases reported [5]. Independent analyses stress caveats: some watchdogs and partisan reports parsed the data differently and congressional documents flagged tens of thousands paroled at the southern border through specific offices, reflecting disputes about how parole, encounters, releases and removals are counted [8] [5].
4. Economic and humanitarian impacts — legal immigration gains, operational strain
Observers credit post-pandemic immigration flows under Biden with helping labor markets and partially easing staffing shortages as legal immigration recovered and refugee resettlement rose, even as the impact on inflation and labor dynamics remains debated [3] [9]. Simultaneously, record diversity and numbers of arrivals tested Border Patrol processing capacity, produced long waits, releases into the interior pending court dates, and strained state and city services where migrants were bused — realities that MPI and other analysts say shaped the political narrative as much as raw policy success [1] [2].
5. Legacy and limits: action without legislation, bipartisan frustration
Across FY2024 the Biden administration demonstrated administrative creativity and measurable operational effects, yet its legacy is constrained by the absence of congressional legalization and polarized reactions: immigrant-rights advocates argued the administration retained too much Trump-era deterrence, while conservatives said policies encouraged unauthorized entries — both critiques appear across the Migration Policy Institute and other reporting [4] [2]. Analysts note that executive tools can reshape processes and numbers in the short term but cannot substitute for durable congressional fixes to immigration law, a limitation MPI and policy researchers repeatedly emphasize [4] [6].