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, its 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, during the four years from 2021 through 2024, a net 10.3 million people immigrated to the U.S. 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 hit16.2%, per the CBO, surpassing the all-time record of 14.8% set in 1890. That mark lasted for more than 130 years, but it couldnt survive the Biden administration.
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 CBOs 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% - just over a quarter as high.
Put otherwise, on the cusp of next years 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. Thats a massive population transformation - one unlike anything our country has ever previously experienced.
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 Bidens 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 Bidens term, but its partial tallies can yield a reasonable estimate for the whole four-year span.
Citing numbers that it obtained from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), 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. Thats 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 four to three. Assuming that 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 that 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 Bidens four years. Thats more than the population of New York City - or all of New Jersey.
The CBO switched from using fiscal-year (FY) figures for 2023 to using calendar-year (CY) 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 FY2023 as in CY2023 (being 3% higher in CY2023), 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 FY2023 and CY2023 numbers, and they differ by just 0.1 million.
The vast majority of these roughly 10 million illegal aliens didnt overstay their visas, per the CBO. Rather, they either evaded capture and escaped across the border or else were released by the Biden administration into the countrys interior.
By far the biggest cohort was deliberately released. As U.S. District Court Judge T. Kent Wetherell wrote during a Biden-era case, U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) 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 USBP chief, said at the time that aliens are likely "turning themselves in because they think theyre going to be released."
They were generally right. The CBO estimates that in 2024, Bidens DHS released about 1,530,000 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. In FY2023, Bidens 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. Thats a total of 5.2 million evasions or releases over two years (specifically, over FY2023 and CY2024, the periods for which the CBO 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 U.S., rather than overstaying their visas. Applying that same seven-eighths percentage 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 4-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.
Summing all of this up, about 10 million illegal aliens were added to the U.S. population during the Biden administration. Of these, 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 the Biden administration. 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 its not just how many but who came into the country that matters. During the three full fiscal years (FY2018-20) immediately preceding the Biden administration, there were a total of 9 encounters along the open border between USBP officials and non-citizens on the terrorist watch list. During the three full fiscal years (FY2022-24) that took place entirely during Bidens 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 Bidens porous border without being encountered.
On his first day in office, President Biden issued an executive order prioritizing "equity." His DHS soon quoted that order, made clear it would apply it "[i]n 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, Were 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, Washington, Boston, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Atlanta, and Miami. This was a deliberate result of Bidens "equity" agenda, and Americans are paying the price.
Jeffrey H. Anderson is president of the American Main Street Initiative. He served as director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics from 2017 to 2021.
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