Illegal crossings under biden

1. High totals, but what counts as a crossing?

Federal “encounters” recorded by U.S. agencies rose sharply after 2021, producing totals in the millions — BBC and other trackers reported more than 10 million encounters since January 2021, with roughly 8 million at the southwest land border through fall 2024 — yet those figures include multiple categories (apprehensions, inadmissibles, Title 42 expulsions) and repeat crossers, so raw encounter totals overstate distinct people arriving once ^{[1] [3] [2]}.

2. Numbers and notable tallies under Biden

Different official and watchdog tallies underline scale: Migration Policy Institute counted 8.6 million migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border from January 2021 through October 2024 and noted nearly 2.5 million expulsions under the public-health policy Title 42, most occurring during Biden’s term; FactCheck tallied that about 2.5 million people were released and 2.8 million removed or expelled in initial processing of millions of encounters, showing that large flows generated varied operational outcomes ^{[2] [4]}.

3. “Gotaways,” parole, and enforcement reality

Border authorities and critics emphasize “gotaways” — people detected by sensors who were not apprehended — with some estimates cited in advocacy and conservative reports ranging into the hundreds of thousands to over a million, but these figures are contested and depend on modeling and source ^{[5] [6]}. At the same time the administration expanded parole programs and humanitarian pathways (notably for specific nationalities), which legally admitted hundreds of thousands and, according to Migration Policy Institute, helped reduce some irregular crossings even as critics framed parole as “releasing” migrants into the country ^{[2] [6]}.

4. Partisan narratives and competing framings

Republican and conservative sources framed Biden’s tenure as an unprecedented “invasion,” citing multi‑million encounter counts and got‑away estimates to argue policy failure ^{[5] [7] [6]}, while administration and neutral analysts note that many encounters were repeat attempts, that expulsions under Title 42 accounted for millions of forced returns, and that some policy changes (parole, legal pathways) aimed to manage flows rather than simply block them ^{[2] [4] [3]}. These divergent framings reflect implicit agendas: oversight committees and conservative think tanks emphasize border breakdown as a political liability, while migration experts stress technical distinctions that temper headline totals ^{[7] [6] [2]}.

5. Trends over time and post‑Biden context

Data show peaks and then declines tied to policy shifts and enforcement actions: fiscal-year 2023 saw near‑record monthly encounter highs, but later measures, cooperation with Mexico, and the use of expulsions and parole channels altered flows; subsequent years saw declines in detected crossings in some months and sectors, illustrating a volatile, policy‑sensitive picture rather than a simple upward or downward arc ^{[2] [8] [3]}.

6. What remains unclear from available reporting

Public reporting reliably documents enormous operational pressure at the border and multiple policy responses, but important uncertainties remain in public sources: precise counts of unique individuals versus repeat encounters, reliable estimates of undetected entries, and the long‑term fiscal and social impacts of parole and releases are contested or model‑dependent — any definitive tally of “people who crossed illegally under Biden” depends on definitions and which administrative categories are counted ^{[4] [6] [2]}.