Did biden let in more imigrants then anyone
Executive summary
Claims that President Biden “let in more immigrants than anyone” conflate different measures — encounters at the southern border, net international migration, parole releases and policy actions — and are misleading without nuance. Migration Policy Institute counted roughly 8.6 million “encounters” at the U.S.–Mexico border through FY2023 and the administration issued about 605 immigration-related executive actions; other analyses cite multi‑million figures for net migration and expulsions under Biden, but sources show many encounters were repeat crossings, expulsions, or removals rather than permanent admissions [1] [2] [3].
1. What the most-cited numbers actually measure
Reporting and research differentiate “encounters” (Border Patrol interactions), “repatriations/expulsions,” and net changes in the immigrant population; MPI reported 8.6 million migrant encounters at the U.S.–Mexico border in the Biden era, while MPI and other DHS analyses show roughly 2.9 million expulsions during the three years Title 42 was used, with about 86 percent occurring under Biden [1] [2]. Those figures do not equate to permanent legal immigration or to a single person counted once — many were repeat crossings or removals [1] [2].
2. Executive actions and policy activity, not a headcount of entrants
The Biden White House was unusually active on immigration policy: MPI counted about 605 immigration‑related executive actions through early December [1] [2]. That intensive policymaking produced changes in asylum rules, parole programs and resettlement, but counting policy moves is not the same as measuring how many people “were let in” [1] [2].
3. Census and net‑migration numbers complicate the picture
Analyses drawing on Census revisions and center‑right research note big increases in net international migration for recent years — the Census revised net migration for 2022–23 upward and reported very high net migration for 2024 — but net migration differs from unauthorized border encounters and includes lawful immigration, temporary visitors, and statistical adjustments [4]. CIS and other commentators attribute much of the increase to policy expectations and mixed flows; they argue Biden’s early signals mattered to migrants considering travel [4].
4. Detentions, removals and “repatriations” show active enforcement too
Migration Policy found that combining deportations, expulsions and returns produced nearly 4.4 million repatriations under Biden — a larger number than any single recent presidential term except the second term of George W. Bush — showing enforcement and returns were substantial even amid high encounter totals [5]. FactCheck and TRAC analyses also stress that many apprehensions led to removals or releases with notices to appear rather than simple permanent admission [6] [7].
5. How political rhetoric compresses different metrics into a single claim
Partisan outlets have compressed border encounters, releases, and net migration into headline claims like “more than 10 million entrants” or “20 million illegal immigrants” under Biden; independent fact‑checks find those headline counts misleading because they double‑count repeat encounters and ignore removals and departures [8] [9]. Newsweek and FactCheck identify these conflations and note that the undocumented population estimates and gross encounter totals are not interchangeable [9] [6].
6. Competing interpretations and the role of policy choices
Some commentators argue Biden’s early policy signals and parole programs spurred migration flows; others point to regional drivers and pandemic-era backlogs. MPI frames Biden’s tenure as both highly active on immigration policy and challenged by unprecedented border pressures, while CIS and right‑leaning analysts emphasize large net migration increases and attribute them partly to policy expectations [1] [2] [4]. PBS noted illegal immigration trends shifted over time and that policies from multiple administrations affected recent drops and rises [3].
7. Bottom line for the claim “Biden let in more immigrants than anyone”
Available sources do not support a simple, single‑number claim that Biden “let in more immigrants than anyone” because the underlying data measure different phenomena (encounters, expulsions, net migration, policy actions) and include repeat crossings and removals; authoritative analyses instead document record‑high encounter and policy activity plus millions of expulsions and repatriations during his term [1] [2] [5]. Independent fact‑checks and data projects warn that raw encounter tallies should not be read as permanent admissions without careful qualification [6] [9].
Limitations: sources provided here stop at different dates and use different definitions; they agree that migration surged and the Biden administration was unusually active, but they differ on emphasis and causal attribution [1] [4] [3]. For a definitive comparative ranking across presidents you would need a harmonized dataset that counts unique, permanent admissions only — not currently available in the documents supplied (not found in current reporting).