Did Joe Biden allow 20 million people into the US?
Executive summary
The claim that President Joe Biden “allowed 20 million people into the U.S.” is misleading and not supported by available government and independent analyses; estimates show the unauthorized population rose to about 14 million by 2023 and the administration recorded millions of border encounters and parole decisions, but those figures do not equal 20 million new people admitted as permanent residents under Biden [1] [2] [3]. Political commentators have amplified a rhetorical framing that conflates encounters, releases, paroles and long-term legal status—an apples-to-oranges aggregation that the fact-checking press and migration researchers have repeatedly criticized [1] [3] [4].
1. What the 20‑million claim actually alleges and who pushed it
The narrative circulating in conservative commentary and repeated by figures such as Vice President JD Vance and online commentators holds that 20–30 million “illegal immigrants” entered the U.S. during Biden’s term and swelled the undocumented population to 30–50 million; Newsweek identifies that framing and flags it as a recurring claim [1]. That messaging collapses distinct categories—border “encounters,” people “paroled” for processing, those released pending court dates, and changes in the total unauthorized population—into a single, politically potent number without consistent methodological grounding [1] [3].
2. What authoritative data actually show about flows and population size
Independent research and government tallies show heavy border pressure but far smaller and more complex outcomes than the 20‑million figure implies: the undocumented population was estimated at about 14 million in 2023 by Pew Research Center [1], and Migration Policy Institute (MPI) analysts calculated that roughly 5.8 million asylum seekers and other migrants were paroled or otherwise allowed to pursue asylum or immigration cases in the U.S. during the administration’s term—an operational designation, not an automatic grant of permanent legal status [2]. DHS encounter data and court backlogs document millions of processed interactions—MPI reports 8.6 million migrant encounters at the U.S.–Mexico border over the period studied and government summaries show millions were processed, removed, or released—but encounters include repeat attempts and do not directly translate to long‑term admission figures [2] [3].
3. Why encounters, releases and parole are not the same as “allowing in” permanently
Fact‑checking organizations emphasize that border encounters and initial processing outcomes are distinct from final immigration status: some people are removed or expelled, some are released pending proceedings, and some receive parole or humanitarian temporary status which permits entry to pursue claims but does not equal lawful permanent residence or citizenship [3] [4]. MPI and FactCheck analyses both caution that counting every encounter as a successful, permanent admission inflates the reality and misrepresents how U.S. immigration law and enforcement operate [2] [3].
4. How policy choices and legal limits shape the numbers
The Biden administration pursued an array of executive actions to modernize immigration processes while also reinstating some controls such as the Title 42-related processes and a policy to require some asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico—moves that produced shifting patterns of arrivals, expulsions, and paroles and limited the administration’s unilateral ability to effect mass legalization without Congress [5] [6]. Migration scholars note the administration both expanded some humanitarian pathways and faced record border pressures, producing millions of processed encounters and a growing backlog in immigration courts—outcomes that feed political narratives on both sides but do not validate a 20‑million admission count [2] [7].
5. Competing narratives and political incentives
Conservative critics frame actions and operational decisions as “open borders,” while immigrant‑rights advocates stress constrained legal options and humanitarian limits; both camps selectively emphasize statistics that suit electoral narratives, and oversight bodies or partisan committees have used high aggregate numbers to argue policy failure or intent [8] [9]. Reporting and fact checks (Reuters, Newsweek, FactCheck) conclude that claims of 20 million admissions are unsupported by the underlying data and are often used for political effect [1] [4] [3].
6. What remains uncertain or beyond these sources
Available reporting and analyses document encounters, paroles, releases and an increased unauthorized population but do not support a single, rigorously computed figure of “20 million people allowed in” under Biden; nor do these sources provide a comprehensive, reconciled count that converts every interaction into a final legal status outcome, so precise attribution of population change to administrative policy versus broader hemispheric migration dynamics cannot be fully resolved here [2] [3].