The results are in: Tallying up Biden’s immigration damage



Most mainstream press accounts have largely ignored one obvious source of the Los Angeles riots — namely, that the Biden administration released more than enough illegal aliens into this country to populate a wholly new Los Angeles. In the aftermath of those riots, it’s an appropriate time to ask this question: How many illegal aliens did the Biden administration actually let into the United States?

According to the Congressional Budget Office, from 2021 through 2024, a net 10.3 million people immigrated to the United States. That figure reflects the number of (legal or illegal) immigrants who entered the U.S., minus the number who left. As a result of this huge immigration influx, the portion of the U.S. population that is foreign-born hit 16.2%, per the Congressional Budget Office, surpassing the all-time record of 14.8% set in 1890. That mark lasted for more than 130 years, but it couldn’t survive the Biden administration.

One can only wonder how many potential terrorists got across Biden’s porous border without being encountered.

In fact, the percentage of the population that is foreign-born is probably even higher than 16.2%, as that figure was for 2023 (up from 15.6% in 2022). Since a net 2.7 million people immigrated to the U.S. in 2024, according to the CBO, and about 500,000 foreign-born residents die annually (based on the CBO’s estimate for 2023), the foreign-born population rose by an estimated 2.2 million in 2024 — from 55.1 million to about 57.3 million. So the percentage of the population that is foreign-born likely hit about 16.8% last year (57.3 million out of 342 million). In comparison, in 1970, the portion of the U.S. population that was foreign-born was 4.7%, which is just over a quarter of the current rate.

Put another way, on the cusp of next year’s quarter-millennial anniversary of American independence, about one out of every six people now living in the U.S. is foreign-born, versus one out of every 21 on the eve of the bicentennial. That’s a massive population transformation — one unlike anything our country has ever experienced.

Record-breaking numbers

Most of those who were added to the foreign-born population during the Biden years were added illegally. From 2021 through 2024 — a period that coincides almost perfectly with Biden’s presidential term (having 97% overlap) — the net increase in the number of illegal aliens in the U.S., based on CBO estimates, was 7.1 million people. In comparison, the entire population of Los Angeles is 3.9 million.

Note that this represents the net increase. The gross increase in the number of illegal aliens under Biden was likely close to 10 million. The CBO only estimates the gross increase for a portion of Biden’s term, but its partial tallies can yield a reasonable estimate for the whole four-year span.

RELATED: Exclusive: Top immigration official reflects on Biden's failed border policies: ‘An invasion unlike we've seen before’

Photo by Nic Antaya/Getty Images

Citing numbers obtained from the Department of Homeland Security, the CBO estimates that in 2023 and 2024, the gross increase in the number of illegal aliens in the U.S. was 5.9 million, while the net increase was 4.3 million. That’s about four new illegal aliens added (by being released into the country, evading capture, or overstaying a legal authorization) for every one that was subtracted (by leaving or being legalized).

So the ratio between the gross increase and the net increase was about 4 to 3. Assuming the same ratio in 2021 and 2022 — when the CBO estimates that the net increase in the number of illegal aliens was 2.9 million — suggests the gross increase over that span was about 3.9 million. Adding the 5.9 million cited above reveals a gross increase of about 9.8 million illegal aliens across Biden’s four years. That’s more than the population of New York City — or all of New Jersey.

The CBO switched from using fiscal-year figures for 2023 to using calendar-year figures for 2024 in estimating the gross increase in the number of illegal aliens (and the releases, evasions, and overstays that compose that gross increase). But the number of encounters along the southwest border was very similar in FY 2023 as in CY 2023 (being 3% higher in CY 2023), so this switch likely had little effect on the CBO estimates. Indeed, for the net increase in the number of illegal aliens, the CBO provides both FY 2023 and CY 2023 numbers, and they differ by just 0.1 million.

The vast majority of these roughly 10 million illegal aliens didn’t overstay their visas, per the CBO. Rather, they either evaded capture and escaped across the border or were released by the Biden administration into the country’s interior.

Released with no accountability

By far the biggest cohort was deliberately released. As U.S. District Judge T. Kent Wetherell wrote during a Biden-era case, U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz “testified that the current surge differs from prior surges that he [has] seen over his lengthy career in that most of the aliens now being encountered at the Southwest Border are turning themselves in to USBP officers rather than trying to escape the officers.”

Ortiz, whom the Biden administration selected as Border Patrol chief, said at the time that aliens are likely “turning themselves in because they think they’re going to be released.”

They were generally right. The CBO estimates that in 2024, Biden’s DHS released more than 1.5 million aliens into the U.S. — 570,000 were encountered along the open border and released, and another 960,000 were encountered at ports of entry along the border and released — while another estimated 800,000 escaped across the border.

RELATED: Street riots can’t set US immigration policy

Photo by Jon Putman/Anadolu via Getty Images

In FY 2023, DHS released about 2 million aliens into the U.S. — 1.1 million of whom crossed the open border and were released, 900,000 of whom were released at ports of entry — while another estimated 860,000 escaped across the border. That’s a total of 5.2 million evasions or releases over two years (specifically over FY 2023 and CY 2024, the periods for which the Congressional Budget Office provides figures). During the same 24 months, 715,000 people overstayed their legal authorizations to be in the country, per CBO estimates.

In other words, about seven-eighths (5.2 million out of 5.9 million) of those who joined the ranks of illegal aliens over those two years either evaded capture or were released into the country, rather than overstaying their visas. Applying that same seven-eighths figure to 2021 and 2022 — when the gross increase in the number of illegal aliens was about 3.9 million — suggests that about 3.4 million illegal aliens evaded capture or were released over those two years. That brings the estimated four-year tally to about 8.6 million releases or evasions under Biden (5.2 million plus 3.4 million) — a number larger than the populations of 38 individual states.

A president-approved invasion

To sum up, about 10 million illegal aliens were added to the U.S. population during the Biden administration. Of those, about 8.6 million came across the southern border — usually being released but sometimes evading capture — rather than overstaying their visas. After accounting for illegal aliens who either left the country or became legalized, the result was a net increase of 7.1 million illegal aliens during the Biden years, per the CBO.

That net increase of 7.1 million illegal aliens equals about two-thirds of the overall net increase of 10.3 million (legal or illegal) immigrants during Joe Biden’s tenure. After four years of Biden, the foreign-born population now makes up a higher percentage of the overall U.S. population than at any time on record, including during the great waves of immigration in the 19th century.

But it’s not just how many but who came into the country that matters. During the three full fiscal years (FY 2018-2020) immediately preceding the Biden administration, there were a total of nine encounters along the open border between Border Patrol officials and noncitizens on the terrorist watch list. During the three full fiscal years (FY 2022-2024) that took place entirely during Biden’s term, there were 370 such encounters — a 41-fold increase. Across all four years of the Biden presidency, the number of such encounters was approximately 400. One can only wonder how many potential terrorists got across Biden’s porous border without being encountered.

On his first day in office, Biden issued an executive order prioritizing “equity.” His DHS soon quoted that order, made clear it would apply it “in the immigration and enforcement context,” and thereafter refused to enforce federal immigration law requiring the detention of asylum-seekers. Such “equity”-driven actions were, in the words of Judge Wetherell, “akin to posting a flashing ‘Come In, We’re Open’ sign on the southern border.”

As a result of that neon invitation, 7.1 million more illegal aliens entered the U.S. or overstayed their visas than left the U.S. or became legalized while Biden was in office — more than the combined populations of Los Angeles, D.C., Boston, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Atlanta, and Miami. This was a deliberate result of Biden’s “equity” agenda, and Americans are paying the price.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics.

MI Elections Dept. ‘Does Not Possess’ Record Of Student ID Voters After A Noncitizen Allegedly Used One To Vote

Michigan's election chief says detecting noncitizen voters is 'very easy.' But Ann Arbor's clerk charges four figures to search for them.

‘What Is Biden Hiding?’: Court Orders University Of Delaware To Explain Why It’s Still Hiding Biden’s Senate Records

'What is Biden hiding?'

Newly Released Photos Allegedly Show Documents Trump Threw In Toilets

The two photos were published in Axios Monday

‘The Sparks Brothers’ Documentary Finally Recognizes The Band That Was Ignored For 50 Years

With quality archival footage and engaging interviews, 'The Sparks Brothers' movie tells the story of how the dynamic pair became 'your favorite band's favorite band.'

9 shocking March stats from the ‘system-wide emergency’ at the border

If the February border numbers were unprecedented, the March border numbers appear to be unfathomable. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has published the March border numbers, which reflect a “system-wide emergency” in the view of top border officials. “The impacts to legitimate trade and travel cannot be overstated,” said CBP Deputy Commissioner Robert E. Perez in a statement. “As this crisis continues to worsen, it undermines CBP’s ability to perform its dual mission of protecting our borders and facilitating legitimate trade and travel.”

Here are nine shocking statistics from the March data and the cumulative numbers of illegal aliens and family units crossing this fiscal year.

103,492: The total number of illegal aliens and inadmissible aliens apprehended at and between points of entry in the month of March. That is the highest monthly number since April 2007. But as former Border Patrol head Mark Morgan told the Senate Homeland Security Committee last week, last decade, “1/3 of those apprehended were repeat offenders so the realistic number of migrant apprehensions was well below what’s reflected.” As such, it’s likely that this month is at or near an all-time record.

1.2 million: How many in a year if March’s pace continues. But Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) predicts that with the weather getting warmer over the next few months and the incentives for illegal immigration unaddressed, the numbers will grow larger. The first week of April seems to indicate this.

$168-180 billion: The lifetime cost of 1.2 million illegal aliens per year, using the input and methodology of the Center for Immigration Studies’ Steven Camarota to calculate the cost of illegal aliens to the American taxpayer.

57,271: A record number of family unit apprehensions (number of people apprehended with family members) in March. That beats the record we just set last month by a whopping 40 percent. That is more than three times as large as the first Central American wave at the peak of the 2014 migration during Obama’s tenure. Even just the unaccompanied minors (who are often split off from family units for strategic reasons) totaled 9,398, which in its own right rivals all but the two busiest months of the 2014 UAC surge, which was without the family units.

189,584: The number of family unit apprehensions between points of entry for the first six months of fiscal year 2019. This far surpasses the numbers for any previous full year.

218,645: The number of family unit apprehensions between points of entry since Judge Dana Sabraw ruled last July that all parents or adults brought with children must be released with the children. During that last nine months, as many family units have been apprehended as in the previous 33 months.

4,647%: The percentage increase in monthly family unit apprehensions between points of entry since the low of the “Trump effect” in April 2017 through February 2019. There’s been a 370 percent increase in family units for the first half of this fiscal year compared with the first half of FY 2018.

422,334: The total number of illegal aliens and inadmissible immigrants, including single adults, who have been caught at our border. That is almost twice the rate of last year, which in itself was a dramatic increase from FY 2017.

104: The number of large groups, defined as 100 or more, coming in at once to surrender to border agents and shutting down their resources. There were 13 such groups in FY 2018, mainly in the latter part of the year when this phenomenon began. It was almost unheard of in previous years.

One of the surprising data points from this month is the surge in single adults in addition to family units. While two-thirds of the illegal immigrants were family units or unaccompanied minors, the number of single adults increased in raw numbers by 30 percent over February. This is likely the result of the family units filling up the detention centers to such a point that even the single adults are being released for a lack of space. This has likely incentivized even those who can’t find a child to use as a ticket into the country to make the trek and try their luck at the border.

Yesterday, I presented 10 ways to disincentivize the border flow. But it is self-evident that unless the administration changes tactics, we have not reached rock bottom at the border yet.

Keep reading...Show less