No, 51M 'illegals' have not entered US under Biden, Harris | Fact check

Andre Byik, USA TODAY
·7 min read
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The claim: 51 million 'illegals' entered US under Biden, Harris

A July 25 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) shows a black and white photo of Vice President Kamala Harris.

"Kamala Harris as our border czar," reads text on the image. "51.4 million illegals entered America under Biden and Harris."

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Our rating: False

Immigration experts said the number in the post is wrong. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has reported about 10 million nationwide encounters with removable noncitizens since 2021. The 51 million figure is also not plausible because estimates by immigration and research groups of the number of people living in the country illegally – regardless of when they arrived – ranges between 11 million and 17 million.

Encounters under Biden and Harris total about 10 million

The post refers to the number of people entering the U.S. illegally, a tally that is typically measured by the number of Customs and Border Protection “encounters.”

By that measure, there have been more than 10.3 million “illegal entries” nationwide since fiscal year 2021, which began in October 2020, Edward Alden, a senior fellow who specializes in immigration policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, said in an email, citing border protection data.

The data shows that from January 2021 – the month Biden took office – through June 2024, there were about 10.1 million such encounters at all borders and ports of entry, a number far below the 51 million entries claimed in the Facebook post.

The Department of Homeland security defines “encounter” as any encounter of a removable noncitizen by Customs and Border Protection Office of Field Operations or Border Patrol. These encounters include arrests under Title 8 authority, inadmissibility determinations at ports of entry under Title 8 authority, or expulsions from the U.S. to prevent the spread of COVID-19 under Title 42 authority. Title 42 expulsions began in March 2020 and ended in May 2023, the Customs and Border Protection website states.

The same Customs and Border Protection encounter data has been used by congressional committees to measure the number of illegal entries into the U.S. under the Biden administration. For example, a Jan. 16 report about illegal immigration by the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability and the House Committee on Homeland Security cited the agency's numbers showing there were more 2.3 million encounters at the southwest land border in fiscal year 2022.

But while Alden said the number in the Facebook post is incorrect, he also cautioned that encounter numbers can be misleading.

Most people apprehended at the border intend to apply for asylum, which is permitted under U.S. law, Alden said. The data also represents events, not individuals. There can be an “overcount” if the same person is arrested multiple times, which “was especially the case when Title 42 was being used," he said.

Some people also manage to sneak past Border Patrol without being arrested, Alden said. The Department of Homeland Security refers to these events as “gotaways,” or people who are not turned back or apprehended after making an illegal entry.

In a May 2023 report, the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General said gotaways are “observational estimates” that rely on agents identifying migrants as crossing the border illegally – such as by cameras or censors – and tracking them to the point where they are not apprehended.

The same report estimated there were about 389,000 gotaways in fiscal year 2021 and more than 600,000 gotaways in fiscal year 2022. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testified in October 2023 that there were more than 600,000 gotaways in fiscal year 2023. And in a Feb. 28 post on X, formerly Twitter, Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens said the number of known gotaways at the time had exceeded 120,000 for fiscal year 2024.

In all, the report estimated 1.5 million gotaways had entered the country from when Biden took office to May 16, 2023.

Fact check: Post wrongly asserts migrants in US illegally can get Social Security cards

Still, adding that sum to the number of nationwide encounters reported by Customs and Border Patrol since fiscal year 2021 – about 10.3 million – does not support the claim in the Facebook post that more than 50 million people entered the U.S. illegally during the Biden-Harris administration.

“The bottom line is that the figure is more in the range of 10 million than 50,” Alden said. “And the (post) suggests that most successfully remained in the country illegally, which is not true. Most were either removed or successfully applied to be considered for asylum.”

There are also no credible reports that the number of people in the U.S. illegally – regardless of when they entered – has topped 50 million. Estimates from immigration and research groups put the total number of these immigrants in a range between 11 million and 17 million.

The Pew Research Center reported in a July 22 article that the “unauthorized immigrant” population totaled 11 million in 2022.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform, which seeks to reduce overall immigration, estimated that 16.8 million “illegal aliens” were living in the U.S. as of June 2023.

And the Center for Immigration Studies, a research group that seeks fewer immigrants but a “warmer welcome for those admitted,” estimated that the “illegal immigrant” population was over 14 million in March 2024.

Steven Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies, said the flow of new “illegal immigrants” into the country under the Biden administration may be 6 million or more, based on an analysis of the monthly Current Population Survey, which is conducted by the Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The growth in this population may be 4 million people or more, accounting for things such as death and outmigration, he said.

“This is completely unprecedented, but the 51.4 million figure is not correct,” Camarota said in an email.

Immigration has become a top issue for voters this election year as Border Patrol encounters with migrants at the southern border have soared under the Biden administration. Illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border hit a record high of 2.2 million in 2022, the Washington Post reported.

In 2021, Biden tapped Harris to lead the administration's diplomatic efforts with Mexico and the Central American countries of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador to stem migration to the southern border. But Harris was not named the administration's “border czar,” as the Facebook post suggests.

The Facebook user who shared the post did not provide evidence supporting the claim when contacted by USA TODAY. Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Illegal border crossings are up but not 51 million | Fact check

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