How many illegals entered the US during the Biden years
Executive summary
The short answer: there is no single, uncontested tally of “how many illegals entered the U.S. during the Biden years,” but the best empirical reading of available government encounter data and independent demographic estimates points to a net increase in the unauthorized population on the order of roughly 5½–6 million during the Biden presidency, while total Border Patrol and CBP “encounters” (which double‑count recidivists and include expulsions) number in the multiple millions as well — far below repeated claims of 20–30 million [1] [2] [3].
1. What the question is actually asking — “entered” vs. “encountered” vs. “remained”
As researchers and fact‑checkers repeatedly note, “entered” can mean very different things: one metric is raw encounters at the southwest border, which count apprehensions and turnbacks and can include the same person multiple times; another is the net increase in the unauthorized resident population — people who arrived and stayed — and those produce very different numbers [2] [4].
2. Border encounters and government processing numbers — millions, but not one‑for‑one additions
Government processing data show millions of encounters during the Biden years; one analysis using DHS figures counted about 6.5 million southern‑border encounters for a February 2021 through October timeframe, and agencies have recorded millions more through 2024, with roughly 2.5 million people released and about 2.8 million removed or expelled in early processing windows — demonstrating that encounters are not equivalent to permanent entries [2] [5].
3. Demographic estimates of how many unauthorized immigrants actually stayed
Independent demographic work and think‑tank analyses place the net increase in the unauthorized population at a much smaller number than raw encounter tallies: Pew’s modeling found a U.S. unauthorized population reaching a record 14 million in 2023 (up from prior estimates around 11–12 million), and analysts such as Cato estimate a net increase during Biden’s tenure of roughly 5.5–6 million undocumented residents based on population trends and residual methods [4] [1].
4. Competing claims, political narratives and where they go wrong
Claims that 20, 25 or even 30 million people “entered and stayed” under Biden have circulated widely in political debate, but fact‑checks and nonpartisan analysts find those figures conflating cumulative encounters, parole program admissions, and projected long‑term trends, and therefore exaggerating the number who actually settled in the U.S.; Newsweek and Gigafact‑network fact checks flag the 20–25M assertions as misleading [3] [6]. Legislative and advocacy documents sometimes cite high cumulative encounter totals or modelled projections (for example a congressional witness memo citing 6.7 million new inadmissible entrants) to make policy arguments, reflecting explicit political agendas [7].
5. Repatriations, expulsions and churn complicate any headline number
The Biden years also saw large numbers of removals, expulsions and parole admissions: Migration Policy notes millions of repatriations/repatriation actions and some of the largest single‑term repatriation totals in recent decades, while parole programs (CHNV and others) admitted tens or hundreds of thousands under special authorities — all of which alter net counts and complicate simple “entered” totals [5] [4].
6. Bottom line and the honest uncertainty investors need
A defensible, evidence‑based bottom line: cumulative government encounters and parole program admissions under Biden total many millions, but these do not equal unique, permanent additions; demographic estimates and multiple research centers converge on a net rise in the unauthorized resident population of roughly 5½–6 million during Biden’s presidency, with an unauthorized population of about 14 million by 2023 — not the 20–30 million touted in some political attacks [2] [1] [4] [3]. Remaining uncertainty stems from recidivism, data lags, parole accounting and differing methodologies; the public debate often weaponizes raw counts without acknowledging those technical distinctions [2] [3].