EXPERT INSIGHT: The Border Numbers Don’t Lie: Biden Administration Policies Fueling Crisis

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Over the last two and a half years, the policies of the Biden Administration have unleashed a historic security, humanitarian, and fentanyl crisis along our southern border. We continue to see record numbers of illegal aliens released into American communities, tragic deaths from illicit fentanyl poisoning, an explosion of human trafficking cases, and other untold consequences to American communities.

In an attempt to hide the full extent of their failed border strategy from the American people, the Biden Administration is now unlawfully paroling tens of thousands of illegal aliens into American communities each month. These illegal aliens do not show up in the traditional Southwest border encounters data but are included in the Nationwide encounters data. A more accurate picture of the border numbers includes all illegal aliens apprehended between Southern and Northern ports of entry, those found inadmissible at ports of entry, and interior unlawful entries. This chart reflects the monthly nationwide border apprehension data from FY14-FY23TD to visually compare recent previous administrations with the consequences of the Biden Administration’s facilitation of illegal entry into the U.S.

As the chart shows, beginning in February 2021, the numbers began surging to monthly record-breaking highs, reflecting the results of poor policymaking and non-enforcement at the border. From February 2021 to January 2023, the numbers continued to increase, reaching an all-time high of over 300,000 in December 2022. This is nearly 10,000 illegal alien apprehensions per day – for context, President Barak Obama’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Jeh Johnson said that 1,000 illegal alien apprehensions per day would constitute a crisis. 

However, in January 2023, the Biden Administration enacted a slew of additional policy changes, making the Southern border apprehension data an incomplete representation of the true nature of the border crisis. This milestone is indicated in the chart by a dotted line. Simply put, they changed how they assess the number of illegal crossings along the southern border in the following ways:

1. DHS began unlawfully paroling up to 30,000 illegal aliens per month into American communities from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, which are not included in the Southwest border apprehension numbers because they fly directly into the U.S. interior.
2. DHS repurposed the CBP One App to divert illegal aliens to ports of entry from between ports of entry where they are deemed inadmissible by Office of Field Operations officials.
3. DHS deceptively reporting changes only to Border Patrol “encounters” instead of total “encounters,” including those processed at ports of entry, those who unlawfully cross the northern border, and those the administration unlawfully paroled into the country.

When the full extent of the monthly numbers are compared to the Obama Administration’s second term and the Trump Administration, it is clear that the Biden Administration’s border policy is a failed strategy.

For example, in June 2023 nationwide “encounters” totaled over 211,000, yet the Biden Administration claimed a victory because the number of apprehensions solely between ports of entry had decreased. In reality, June’s apprehensions of illegal aliens were 67,000 higher than both the Biden Administration’s reported statistics and the highest month during the Trump Administration, which as 144,116 in May 2019. They also represented a 315% increase from the average June during the Trump Administration, which was 50,553. Unlike all former Presidential Administrations, the Biden Administration’s DHS has removed all deterrents to come to the U.S. illegally, changed the way they measure the data, and re-defined legality to mislead the American people into believing the border is secure. This is false, and the true numbers prove it.