How many illegal border crossings were recorded during Biden’s presidency by year?
Executive summary
Official U.S. government encounter data show exceptionally high “encounters” (apprehensions, inadmissibles, Title 42 expulsions) during President Biden’s term: CBP and reporting outlets place annual totals in the millions, with FY2021–FY2023 and especially 2023 as peak years — for example, the Border Patrol recorded more than 1.7 million arrests in FY2021 and reporting says 3.2 million encounters in 2023 [1] [2]. Sources disagree on precise totals and terminology (encounters, apprehensions, expulsions, “gotaways”), so yearly counts depend on which CBP metric and fiscal or calendar year window a source uses [3] [4].
1. What the government tracks — “encounters,” not a single “crossings” number
CBP’s published metric is “encounters,” which combines U.S. Border Patrol Title 8 apprehensions, Office of Field Operations inadmissibles at ports, and Title 42 expulsions; that is the dataset used in most public tallies and is not a simple count of unique people who successfully entered and remained [3]. Multiple outlets explicitly note repeat attempts and recidivism inflate encounter totals versus unique migrants [1] [5].
2. Year-by-year picture reported by major outlets and CBP (high-level pattern)
Reporting and fact sheets show a surge in 2021, sustained high totals in 2022–2023 and then declines in 2024–2025 after policy changes. For example, CBP reported more than 1.7 million Border Patrol arrests in FY2021 [1]; Newsweek and others cite 3.2 million nationwide encounters in 2023 [2]. Analyses note 2023 as the highest recent year and 2024 as still very large though below that peak, with later 2025 reporting steep declines under a new administration [2] [6] [7].
3. “Gotaways” and undetected crossings — a separate and disputed category
CBP also reports automated detections of “gotaways” (people detected by sensors who were not apprehended). Wikipedia and oversight reporting cite roughly 1.6 million gotaways for FY2021–FY2023; congressional and advocacy fact sheets cite different totals and estimates of “known gotaways” approaching or exceeding millions — these figures are contested and treated separately from encounters [4] [8]. Because “gotaways” are inherently undetained, they increase uncertainty about the true number of successful illegal entries [4].
4. Counting choices change the answer — fiscal vs. calendar years, nationwide vs. southwest border
Sources use different scopes: CBP’s dashboards provide Southwest Border and Nationwide encounter counts and are organized by fiscal year (Oct–Sept) while media often present calendar-year summaries; this makes cross-source aggregation tricky. For example, CBP’s Southwest dashboard and nationwide pages are the authoritative tables [9] [3], while news outlets quote select fiscal or calendar-year snapshots such as FY2021 totals or 2023 calendar-year encounters [1] [2].
5. Representative figures from the reporting record (examples, not exhaustive)
- FY2021: U.S. Border Patrol reported more than 1.7 million encounters at the U.S.–Mexico border [1].
- 2021 monthly spikes: January 2021 apprehensions rose from ~75,316 to a July 2021 monthly high of ~200,658 in that first year [10].
- 2023: Newsweek and other reporting cite about 3.2 million encounters recorded in 2023, identified as the recent peak year [2].
These examples reflect the kinds of counts sources use; they are drawn from CBP-derived reporting and journalistic compilations [1] [10] [2].
6. Political framing and contested totals — expect partisan variance
Republican congressional fact sheets and conservative senators cite cumulative encounter-plus-gotaway totals that run into the multiple millions (e.g., claims of 7.8–10+ million encounters or 1.5–2 million gotaways over the administration), framing the trend as a “crisis” [11] [8] [12]. DHS and allied releases emphasize later declines and record-low months in 2025, highlighting different metrics like nationwide monthly lows and reductions in gotaways [7] [13] [14]. Independent outlets and fact-checkers stress methodological differences and repeat crossings when evaluating those claims [5] [1].
7. What’s missing or uncertain in current reporting
Available sources do not provide a single, undisputed year-by-year count of unique illegal entrants who successfully remained in the U.S. because (a) CBP’s encounter counts include repeat crossers and expulsions, (b) “gotaways” are detected but not detained, and (c) analyses mix fiscal and calendar years and differing geographic scopes [3] [4] [5].
8. How to get a precise year-by-year table you can cite
Use CBP’s official “Nationwide Encounters” and “Southwest Land Border Encounters” dashboards (they publish monthly and fiscal-year totals) and decide on: a) fiscal vs calendar year, b) whether to include Title 42 expulsions and OFO inadmissibles, and c) whether to report encounters only or add gotaways — then cite CBP tables directly [9] [3]. Journalists and analysts reach different totals because they choose different options from that source set [3].
Limitations: this briefing relies only on the provided sources and therefore cannot supply a single definitive, reconciled year-by-year count of illegal crossings absent a clear choice of metric; readers should consult CBP’s dashboards for the underlying monthly and fiscal tables [3] [9].