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Did pres Joe Biden ship in immigrants
Executive summary
Claims that “President Joe Biden shipped in immigrants” refer to a mix of official parole programs that allowed people to fly directly to U.S. airports under eligibility rules and partisan accusations that these were “secret” or “unvetted” mass flights. Reporting and official data show hundreds of thousands of migrant encounters and large parole/admission programs (for example, nearly 530,000 using a parole program as of August 2024) but fact‑checks and mainstream outlets say the “secretly flew 320,000” framing is misleading because many flights were part of an authorized parole process with sponsor and application requirements [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. What people mean by “shipped in immigrants”: official parole flights, not clandestine airlifts
Critics point to programs that let nationals of certain countries apply online and travel to specified U.S. airports under humanitarian parole or CBP One arrangements; the Biden administration created lawful pathways in 2022–2023 that allowed people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela (and others) to enter at interior airports after meeting application, sponsor and vetting rules, not as random secret injections [4] [2] [3].
2. Scale: large numbers, but numbers reported differently across sources
Multiple sources document very large migration figures since 2021—encounters at the southwest border measured in millions and parole-program use in the hundreds of thousands. MigrationPolicy cites at least 6.3 million migrant encounters through January 2024 and more than 2.4 million migrants allowed into the country during that three‑year window [5]. Wikipedia and BBC summaries note over 7.2 million or “more than 10 million encounters” in other counts depending on timeframe and definitions [1] [6]. The administration’s parole pathways were used by large numbers—Wikipedia notes nearly 530,000 beneficiaries of a parole program as of August 2024 [2].
3. The “320,000 secret flights” claim: origin and fact‑checks
A conservative advocacy group and some Republican lawmakers highlighted FOIA-derived CBP data showing flights that brought migrants directly to U.S. airports and called the program “secret” or “unvetted” (Center for Immigration Studies reported more than 200,000 from four countries and later cited 320,000 arrivals to U.S. airports in 2023) [4] [7]. But AP’s fact check concluded claims that the administration “secretly flew more than 300,000 unvetted migrants” are false because the flights were part of an established parole program with application, sponsor and specified arrival airports; migrants paid travel costs and had to apply and be approved, rather than being randomly flown in without vetting [3].
4. Security and local impact concerns — competing perspectives
The Center for Immigration Studies and some congressional Republicans argue the flights created security vulnerabilities and that CBP withheld airport lists, implying oversight problems [7]. The administration and defenders say the program was a lawful tool to manage high border encounters by providing regulated, orderly pathways and reducing dangerous irregular crossings; proponents point to the sponsor requirement and vetting as evidence of process [4] [2] [3]. These are politically opposed narratives: one frames flights as an operational workaround that reduced chaotic border crossings, the other frames them as improper “bypass” of normal admissions that strained airports and cities [4] [7].
5. Deportations, releases and the larger enforcement picture
While debates focus on parole flights, enforcement data show the administration also oversaw substantial removals: ICE reported record deportations in FY2024 [8] [9] and Migration Policy/other analyses calculate millions of repatriations and expulsions during Biden’s term—figures that complicate the simple narrative that the administration uniformly “let people in” [10] [11]. FactCheck.org and other analyses note that of millions of border encounters, significant numbers were released while others were removed or expelled, so “encounters” do not map one‑to‑one to permanent settlement [12].
6. Limits of available reporting and outstanding questions
Available sources document program rules, sizeable use of parole and partisan claims based on FOIA data, but they disagree on characterizations: advocacy FOIA reporting emphasizes operational secrecy or risk [4] [7] while fact‑checks and mainstream reporting emphasize that arrivals were via legal parole pathways with sponsorship and application steps [3] [2]. Sources do not provide a single definitive count that ties every flight to a precise administration decision labeled “Biden personally shipped X migrants,” so assertions that Biden “secretly shipped” a specified number are not supported as stated by fact‑checking outlets [3].
7. Bottom line for readers
Yes—large numbers of migrants entered U.S. airports under administration‑authorized parole and CBP One pathways (hundreds of thousands by mid‑2024), but available reporting shows these were structured programs with application and sponsor requirements rather than clandestine, unvetted mass airlifts; partisan actors have amplified FOIA numbers into claims of secretive “shipping,” and fact‑checks have called those characterizations misleading [4] [2] [3].