Nearly 7.3 million migrants have crossed the Southwest border illegally during President Joe Biden’s tenure, more than the population of 36 individual states, Fox News reports.
US Customs and Border Protection reported 961,537 border crossings in the current fiscal year, which runs from October to September. If the current rate of illegal immigration does not slow, fiscal year 2024 will break last year’s record of 2,475,669 southwest border crossings – a number that by itself exceeds the population of New Mexico, a border state.
The total number of southwest border crossings since Biden took office in 2021 is 7,298,486, CBP data show.
That is larger than the population of 36 US states, including Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
Comparing these figures to the population in the largest US states, the 7.3 million figure represents 18.7 per cent of California’s 39 million population, 23.9 per cent of Texas with its 31 million residents, 32.3 per cent of Florida’s population and 37.3 per cent of New York’s. That’s more than half that of Pennsylvania, Illinois and Ohio.
If all the illegal migrants who entered the US under President Biden united into one city, it would become the second largest city in America after New York City. That number does not include another 1.8 million known “fugitives” hiding from law enforcement, making it larger than New York City.
In total, some 10 million migrants crossed the border illegally into the US during Biden’s administration – a record that Biden’s critics say could only be achieved by deliberately refusing to enforce the law. Eric Ruark, Director of Research for Numbers USA, a nonprofit that advocates for immigration restrictions, said:
“This unprecedented surge in illegal immigration isn’t an accident. It is the result of deliberate policy choices by the Biden administration.”
Republicans and anti-illegal immigration activists have for years accused Biden of allowing the current influx of migrants by cancelling border measures passed by former President Donald Trump. The Biden administration denies responsibility for the crisis and points to external factors such as violence and economic instability in South and Central America as the culprit behind the huge waves of migration to the US.
But critics of the president say migrants face more of a pull factor in the form of job opportunities and government benefits because they know they will not face deportation under Biden’s lenient policies. Ruark added:
“The administration has refused to enforce existing immigration law and taken every opportunity to aid and abet illegal border crossings — through policies such as catch-and-release, mass parole, and offering temporary work permits to tens of thousands of foreigners who make dubious claims for asylum. In actual effect, the United States government is completing the human smuggling and trafficking process for the Mexican cartels.”
Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), said migrants have learned in the last three years that they won’t face deportation for entering the country illegally. Mehlman said:
“They have sent the signal that if you come to the US illegally, if you abuse the asylum system, you’ll be released into the country and allowed to remain here, in most cases given work authorisation. Even if you neglect to show up for your hearings, the odds of you being removed are negligible. The president claims he doesn’t have the authority to enforce our laws. He absolutely does. He is deliberately not enforcing those laws.”
Biden urged Congress to pass new laws that he said would allow him to address illegal migration. He backed a bipartisan deal in the Senate that included “emergency border powers” that would mandate Title 42-style removal of migrants when migration levels exceed 5,000 people a day for an average of seven days. It also would have limited the time to apply for asylum, provided immediate work authorisation for asylum seekers, and funded a massive increase in border staffing and more immigration judges.
But conservatives tanked the deal in the Senate after House Republicans declared it a non-starter. They argued that the bill would normalise record high levels of illegal immigration and said Biden now has all the authority he needs to replicate Trump’s policies and secure the border.
While the debate is ongoing, Republicans in the House of Representatives have declared impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for allegedly refusing to enforce immigration laws. The two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas accuse him of “refusing to enforce federal immigration laws” and violating the “public trust.”
The DHS has criticised the attempts as politically motivated and insists that the Biden administration is enforcing existing laws.
Biden said “history will not look kindly on House Republicans for their blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship that has targeted an honorable public servant in order to play petty political games.”
