How many people crossed the border illegally since 2020
Executive summary
Official U.S. government "encounter" data show roughly 10–11 million migrant encounters at U.S. borders from the start of 2020 through mid-2024, but that figure is a count of events recorded by Customs and Border Protection (CBP), not a headcount of unique people [1] [2]. Because encounters include expulsions under Title 42, repeated crossings by the same individuals, and do not capture all "gotaways," the true number of distinct people who crossed illegally since 2020 cannot be stated precisely from available public data [3] [4] [5].
1. The official tally: millions of "encounters," not necessarily people
CBP’s public dashboards and federal data aggregators report that encounters nationwide — which the agency defines to include U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions, Office of Field Operations inadmissibles, and Title 42 expulsions — amount to roughly 10–11 million events spanning late 2019/early 2020 through at least mid-2024, a figure repeated by USAFacts and BBC summaries of CBP data [2] [1] [6]. Congressional and policy releases have cited comparable cumulative encounter totals — for example, a House committee fact sheet and media trackers reported multiple millions of encounters at the southwest border and nationwide under recent administrations [7] [6].
2. Why encounters overstate unique crossings: repeat crossers and Title 42
CBP encounter counts can reflect multiple events for the same person because a sizable share of recent encounters involved repeat crossings, especially during the period when Title 42 expulsions were in force (March 2020–May 2023), which CBP itself notes had higher recidivism than Title 8 processing [3] [1]. Independent summaries point out that more than a quarter of border encounters in fiscal 2020 and 2021 involved repeat crossers, which means event counts materially overstate the number of distinct individuals [4].
3. Title 42, expulsions and the inflation of event counts
The use of the public‑health expulsion authority known as Title 42 from March 21, 2020 to May 11, 2023 altered counting: expulsions were logged as encounters even though those individuals were immediately returned and often tried again, contributing to higher encounter totals; CBP and analysts explicitly flag that encounters during that window differ from pre‑2020 apprehension counts [3] [2] [1]. BBC reporting and CBP data note that Title 42 expulsions numbered in the millions during its operation and are a key reason why encounter tallies surged and then shifted after the policy ended [6] [1].
4. Peaks, trends and year‑by‑year snapshots
Encounter levels fell at the start of the pandemic in 2020 and then rebounded strongly in 2021 — with a reported surge of roughly 66% between February and March 2021 — producing record annual encounter totals in 2021 and especially high counts through 2022 (CBP and secondary reporting place fiscal‑year peaks in 2021–2022, with sources citing more than 1.6 million in FY2021 and over 2.2 million Border Patrol encounters in 2022) [4] [8] [1]. More recent DHS statements claim substantial declines in late 2024 after policy changes and international cooperation measures, reflecting how policy and enforcement shifts materially affect monthly and annual encounter totals [9].
5. Missing pieces: gotaways, deduplication limits and the impossibility of a precise headcount
CBP encounter data do not capture every person who crosses undetected ("gotaways"), and estimates of those numbers vary; DHS and CBP statements acknowledge "gotaways" and say they are a distinct, partially unmeasured category [9]. The Office of Homeland Security Statistics has worked to de‑duplicate some datasets and reports low overlap in certain components, but also cautions that encounter records are event‑based and subject to revision, meaning public data cannot be turned cleanly into a definitive count of unique illegal entrants [5] [2].
6. Bottom line: what can be stated authoritatively
Authoritatively: roughly 10–11 million CBP encounters occurred nationwide from around 2020 through mid‑2024, a fact reflected in CBP dashboards and multiple independent summaries [1] [2] [6]. What cannot be precisely answered from the available public reporting is the exact number of distinct people who "crossed the border illegally" in that period, because encounter totals include repeat crossings, Title 42 expulsions, lawful inadmissibles recorded at ports of entry, and omit some undetected crossings — all caveats underscored in CBP, Pew, and OHSS materials [3] [4] [5].