How did Border Patrol encounters and illegal crossing statistics change during Biden’s presidency?
Executive summary
Border "encounters" surged early in President Biden’s term and, according to CBP totals cited by multiple sources, amounted to roughly 11 million encounters over his four years in office [1] [2]. Policy changes in mid‑2024 — notably the administration’s June 2024 "Secure the Border" actions and increased Mexican enforcement — coincided with a sharp decline in monthly encounters that continued into 2025 [3] [4].
1. From record highs to big declines: the raw numbers journalists cite
Under Biden, CBP encounter counts rose to multi‑million totals — congressional and advocacy fact sheets placed nationwide encounters since FY2021 in the high millions (examples: 7.8m–9.5m to near 11m cited by CBP summaries and reporting) and some outlets summarize roughly 11 million encounters across his four years [5] [1] [2]. Independent analyses and CBP monthly releases show encounters peaked in 2023 and then trended down after March–June 2024 [3] [4].
2. Why "encounters" are not the same as permanent entries
Multiple sources stress that an "encounter" records an instance when CBP stopped, processed, expelled or otherwise recorded someone — and can include repeat attempts by the same individual and port‑of‑entry inadmissibles — so encounters overstate net additions to the undocumented population [6] [7]. Newsweek’s fact‑check notes that high encounter counts do not equal successful, lasting entries and that departures and removals have also been large [7].
3. Policy pivots that changed the trajectory
Key policy moves are tied to the downturn. The Biden administration’s June 2024 proclamation and "Secure the Border" rule placed new asylum limits and triggers tied to a seven‑day average of encounters, and DHS says those measures reduced encounters by over 40% in early weeks [8] [3]. Migration Policy Institute reporting attributes much of the decline to the rule plus stepped‑up Mexican enforcement cooperating with U.S. operations [3].
4. Political actors frame the same data very differently
Republicans and conservative outlets portray the Biden years as a border crisis measured in millions of crossings and "gotaways" [9] [5]. By contrast, administration and allied sources point to later declines and to repatriations and expulsions as evidence of enforcement [10] [11]. Fact‑checking outlets caution against treating cumulative encounter totals as equivalent to permanent population increases [7] [12].
5. The counterfactual: post‑Biden months under a new administration
CBP and administration statements in 2025 report encounters falling to levels not seen since the 1970s and cite months with just tens of thousands (or single‑month counts under 30,000) and very low daily averages — framing that as the result of stricter enforcement [13] [14] [15]. Independent reporting (PBS, Axios) documents a sharp drop from December 2024 into early 2025 but also notes that the downward trend began earlier in 2024 and coincided with policy and diplomatic shifts [16] [4].
6. What the data does and does not show about numbers of people in the U.S.
Sources show large volumes of encounters and many repatriations/expulsions — for example, Migration Policy cites nearly 4.4 million repatriations combined with other enforcement actions — but they also say that encounters alone cannot establish how many unauthorized migrants remained in the U.S. permanently [11] [7]. Claims that "20 million entered" or similar aggregates have been challenged in fact checks as conflating encounters with permanent arrivals [7] [12].
7. Limitations, open questions and hidden agendas to watch for
All the reporting depends on CBP encounter definitions and periodic policy changes (Title 42, asylum rules, expulsions), so month‑to‑month comparisons are sensitive to legal and data‑definition shifts [6] [3]. Advocacy groups and partisan committees selectively cite cumulative totals to advance political narratives — either that Biden created an unprecedented influx [9] [5] or that later enforcement fixed the problem [14] [13]. Independent analysts (Migration Policy, PBS, FactCheck) recommend treating trends, policy timelines, and distinctions between encounters, expulsions, and permanent residency separately when evaluating impact [3] [16] [12].
8. Bottom line for readers
Available sources document a rise in CBP "encounters" during much of the Biden presidency, reaching multi‑million cumulative totals reported by both critics and CBP‑cited summaries [5] [1]. They also show a marked decline in encounters after policy measures in mid‑2024 and further drops into 2025 tied to both U.S. rules and Mexican enforcement [3] [4]. What they do not settle is how many of those encounters translated into permanent population increases — that question requires different datasets than the encounter totals cited here [6] [7].