What were yearly legal noncitizen arrivals (ports of entry admissions) versus illegal encounters under each presidency since 1990?
Executive summary
Available reporting shows U.S. Border Patrol and CBP “encounters” (events at and between ports of entry) rose sharply under President Biden versus prior administrations — e.g., roughly 6.3–7.2 million southern-border encounters from Jan 2021 through parts of 2024 and roughly 9.4–10.5 million nationwide encounters through late 2024 depending on measure and cut-off [1] [2] [3]. Government statistics and independent outlets stress that “encounters” are events, not people, and do not equal the number of noncitizens allowed to remain; fact-checking reporting finds millions were removed/expelled while millions were released [4] [5].
1. What the headline numbers actually count — “encounters,” not settled migrants
Federal data compiled by CBP count “encounters,” which combine Border Patrol apprehensions between ports of entry, Office of Field Operations inadmissibles at ports of entry, and expulsions under Title 42; these are events and may count the same person multiple times if they try to cross repeatedly [4]. FactCheck.org reports that through certain periods millions of encounters produced about 2.5 million people released into the U.S. and about 2.8 million removed or expelled in initial processing, underscoring that encounters ≠ net additions to the undocumented population [4].
2. Variation by presidency — rise in encounters during Biden years
Multiple analyses and trackers find encounters rose sharply after 2020. Migration Policy Institute reported about 6.3 million southern-border encounters since Biden took office through late 2024 and noted demographic shifts (more families and non‑Mexican nationalities) [1]. Other Migration Policy reporting counted about 9.4 million unauthorized‑migrant encounters from FY2021 through Feb 2024 and said that was more than three times the volume under Trump [2]. News outlets also flagged a record 3.2 million encounters in FY2023, far above FY2019’s 1.4 million peak in Trump’s first term [6].
3. Trump and earlier presidencies — lower encounter totals but policy differences matter
Reporting notes smaller encounter totals during the Trump administration compared with Biden’s surge in events; for example, Migration Policy and WRAL contrasts cite roughly 1.8 million encounters under Trump versus multiple millions under Biden depending on the timeframe used [2] [5]. Analysts emphasize that Trump-era measures — including Title 42 pandemic expulsions, Remain in Mexico, and other enforcement steps — changed both the volume and composition of migration and affect year‑to‑year comparisons [7] [8].
4. What happened to people after encounters — releases, expulsions, removals
Data summarized by FactCheck.org show that in the initial processing of millions of encounters during the Biden period, approximately 2.5 million people were released and about 2.8 million removed or expelled — many expulsions were carried out under Title 42 during the pandemic [4]. Migration Policy Institute also reports the Biden administration conducted large numbers of rapid returns and expulsions while simultaneously expanding parole pathways — producing a mix of returns and legal entries that complicates a simple illegal-vs-legal tally [2] [1].
5. Why single-year presidential tallies are tricky and often misleading
Analysts and fact-checkers warn that neither CBP encounters nor other publicly posted figures provide a clean, year-by-year “arrivals who stayed” count for each presidency. Encounters overstate unique individuals (repeat crossings count multiple times), and the government does not publish a simple net illegal-entry-remaining series by presidential term; as the Christian Science Monitor put it, the U.S. does not publish data on the net number who entered illegally and remained [9]. PolitiFact similarly ruled claims that “10 million migrants entered under Biden” false because they rely on encounter totals rather than unique entrants or people granted residence [3].
6. Competing narratives and what to watch when comparing presidencies
Advocates for stronger enforcement point to rising encounter totals under Biden as evidence of laxity, while academic and policy analysts highlight global push factors and policy changes (parole programs, asylum rule changes) that reshaped flows and the composition of arrivals [6] [2]. Migration Policy and other outlets note the Biden years saw both record encounters and high volumes of rapid returns and deportations to many countries — a mix that undermines simple political narratives [2] [1].
7. How to reconstruct the year-by-year comparison if you need exact numbers
Available reporting provides encounter totals by fiscal year for recent years (e.g., FY2019 peak ~1.4 million under Trump; FY2023 ~3.2 million under Biden) and aggregate encounter totals over multi‑year spans; for precise, year-by-year port-of-entry admissions versus illegal encounter counts for every presidency since 1990, available sources do not provide a single consolidated table in this dataset — you would need to compile CBP and DHS year‑by‑year encounter/apparent-admissions data and cross‑check removals/expulsions to get net figures [6] [4] [9].
Limitations: This summary relies only on the provided reports and fact checks; they emphasize encounters and processing outcomes but do not supply a clean, single-series “legal noncitizen arrivals at ports of entry vs. illegal encounters by year for each presidency since 1990” in one place [4] [9].