Why do so many think that Biden opened the borders, and what did Biden actually do that caused the flood of immigrants? How much did immigration increase during his presidency?
Executive summary
A widespread belief that "Biden opened the borders" stems from a mix of policy reversals of Trump-era controls, visible spikes in border encounters, and a loud political narrative amplified by opponents and conservative committees [1] [2]. In reality, the Biden administration both reinstated and tightened some enforcement tools while also expanding legal pathways and reversing specific Trump restrictions; encounters at the southern border rose dramatically during his term, but the causes and outcomes are complex and debated [3] [4] [5].
1. Why the perception crystallized: policy reversals + visible numbers
Public perception hardened because early Biden actions—halting wall construction, revoking some Trump executive orders and reversing family-separation policies—were framed as “softening” the border stance, even as the administration simultaneously proposed large legalization measures and restored refugee processing [6] [7] [4]. Those high-profile reversals were matched by relentless reporting of record migrant encounters—millions stopped, processed, or expelled—which created a simple narrative: fewer restrictions, more arrivals [3] [8].
2. What Biden actually changed in enforcement and legal channels
Biden issued more immigration-focused executive actions than predecessors and moved to restore legal immigration pathways—raising refugee caps, endorsing sweeping legislative reform, expanding certain humanitarian protections, and pausing some detention practices—while also establishing new case-processing tools like CBP One at ports of entry [8] [4] [3]. At the same time his administration reinstated or relied on expulsions under Title 42 early on and later implemented a mix of "carrot-and-stick" measures intended to steer migrants toward legal pathways and to deter illegal crossings [9] [10].
3. Enforcement outcomes: not a clean “opening”
Data show very large increases in encounters at and between ports of entry—counting repeat crossers and “gotaways”—with at least 6.3–8.6 million encounters reported in different DHS snapshots through late 2024, and millions of migrants processed into various outcomes including returns, expulsions and releases [3] [8] [11]. Several analysts and libertarian scholars argue Biden actually increased arrests, detentions and removals in some periods, and that Title 42 expulsions produced enormous returns independent of policy rhetoric about being “open” [5] [12]. Republican critics and Senate minority reports interpret the same figures as evidence of weak border control and a de facto opening [2].
4. Drivers beyond presidential decree: labor, information and regional factors
Multiple observers attribute the rise in migration to structural drivers that predated or existed independently of Biden decisions: strong U.S. labor demand during 2021–2024 that incentivized migration, better information flows via social media that lowered coordination costs for migrants, and long-running regional crises and cartels’ smuggling operations—factors emphasized by think tanks and policy analysts who dispute a simple causal link to Biden’s actions [5] [12]. Migration ebbed when labor demand softened in 2024, according to those analyses, suggesting push–pull economics matter alongside policy [5].
5. How much did immigration increase under Biden?
Measured by border “encounters,” the numbers rose dramatically: government data cited by analysts place southern border encounters in the multi‑millions—roughly 6.3 million through three years and figures up to 8.6 million through October 2024 depending on the dataset and inclusion of repeat crossings [3] [8]. Lifecycle reporting shows millions were allowed into the country in various legal statuses while roughly similar numbers were removed or expelled, and legal immigration (visas, naturalizations, green cards) also rebounded to record highs during the term [8] [3]. Claims that tens of millions “illegally entered” are misleading because encounters are not equivalent to unique successful entries and different datasets count different outcomes [13] [11].
6. Bottom line: perception, policy and messy metrics
The fast, politicized story—Biden opened the border—thrives because policy rollbacks were visible and encounter metrics ballooned; yet the administration’s record is mixed: it both expanded legal pathways and used expulsions and enforcement tools, even increasing some types of removals, while facing overwhelming regional migration pressures that no single president controls [4] [5] [8]. Debates will continue because the same statistics are used to justify opposite conclusions, and reporting outlets, partisan committees and think tanks each emphasize different slices of the messy data [2] [12] [3].