how many illegals entered the us under Biden
Executive summary
The public debate often seeks a single tally of "how many illegals entered the US under Biden," but the federal reporting and expert estimates do not support a single, definitive figure; Border Patrol and DHS use "encounters," many of which are returns, repeat crossings or parole admissions rather than permanent entries [1] [2]. Aggregate encounter counts across the Biden years run into the millions—roughly 10–11 million documented encounters by some congressional and agency tallies—but significant numbers were removed or returned and other counting methods produce lower estimates of net additions to the unauthorized resident population [3] [1] [2].
1. Raw encounter tallies: millions of Border Patrol contacts, not a headcount of new residents
Border and DHS statistics compiled by congressional offices and CBP show roughly 10.8 million total inadmissible “encounters” since FY2021 in one Republican House factsheet, and other congressional summaries have cited 8–8.5 million Border Patrol encounters through certain cutoffs—figures that are frequently used to claim millions “entered” the country under Biden, but these encounter tallies include expulsions, returns, parole admissions and repeat encounters by the same people [3] [4] [5].
2. Returns, removals and repeat encounters materially reduce the “entered” count
Government lifecycle reporting and independent fact-checks point out that many encounters did not result in people staying in the United States: FactCheck reported about 2.5 million people released into the U.S. and roughly 2.8 million removed or expelled in initial processing of millions of encounters, while DHS and other analysts note over 4 million migrants encountered have been returned and 20–25% of encounters may be repeat crossings—factors that dramatically lower any simple conversion of encounters into new residents [1] [2].
3. Parole programs and administrative categories complicate the math
Parole initiatives for Venezuelans, Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans accounted for hundreds of thousands of arrivals that were lawful under temporary status, and DHS programs like CHNV and CBP One admitted roughly 160,000 CHNV parolees by mid‑2023 and, according to some committee counts, more than 1.4 million inadmissible aliens via parole-related programs—categories that some political actors count as “entries” while others treat them as lawful temporary admissions distinct from unlawful crossings [6] [3].
4. Population estimates show growth but not a precise entry total
Nonpartisan demographers at Pew estimated the unauthorized immigrant population reached a record 14 million in 2023, a rise from earlier estimates and reflecting both new arrivals and policy changes that provided temporary protections to many; that population-level figure does not translate directly into a Biden-era entry count because it mixes preexisting residents, departures, naturalizations and policy conversions of status [6].
5. Claims of 20 million (or 30 million) are exaggerated and disputed
High-end political claims that 20–30 million people entered illegally under Biden are not supported by the available DHS encounter and demographic analyses and have been debunked or tagged as exaggerations by multiple fact‑checks and reporting; Newsweek, Pew and experts cited in public analyses have characterized those large round numbers as inflated compared with encounter and population data [7] [6].
6. Why a single definitive number is not possible from public reporting
Public DHS and congressional data count encounters, parole admissions, expulsions, removals, “got‑aways” and repeat crossings in different ways and with incomplete public breakdowns; several GOP committee reports and think‑tank estimates offer widely divergent totals because they choose different definitions and timeframes, so any single “how many entered” number depends on whether one counts every encounter, only releases to the interior, parolees, or net population additions—choices that produce very different totals [8] [9] [2].
7. Bottom line — best-supported answer with caveats
The best-supported, defensible formulation is: federal encounter tallies since 2021 total roughly 10–11 million (depending on the cutoff used), but many of those encounters resulted in returns, removals or repeat encounters; estimates of people released into the interior are in the low millions (e.g., ~2.5M released in initial processing), and demographic estimates show the unauthorized resident population grew to about 14 million by 2023—none of which equate cleanly to a single count of “how many illegals entered” during the Biden presidency [3] [1] [6]. Where advocates or lawmakers cite 3–7 million or as many as 20 million, those numbers reflect differing definitions, selective inclusion of parolees or encounters, or political extrapolation rather than a single, verifiable entry count [8] [9] [7].