15 million illegals entered the U.S. during the Biden Administration.

Question

I guess you missed the 15 million illegals entering the country during the Biden Administration or the leftist riots in 2020?

Answer 1

The claim that “15 million illegals entered the country during the Biden administration” while also referring to “leftist riots in 2020” is just completely untrue. Although the original post has been taken down after reviewing official government data while also doing some independent fact-checking, I found that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports millions of border encounters from 2021–2024 (https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/southwest-land-border-encounters), but these  encounters do not represent unique individuals and they can often include repeat crossings and people who were expelled or removed. The Department of Homeland Security also states that encounter totals should not be interpreted as the number of undocumented immigrants who entered and remained in the U.S. (https://www.dhs.gov/immigration-statistics). Secondary analyses from Snopes and CBS News explain that the “15 million” is a number that is often created by combining encounters, estimates of “gotaways,” and repeat crossings, which leads to an exaggerated number of people who entered and stayed in the country (https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/million-migrants-border-biden/; https://www.cbsnews.com/news/immigration-border-encounters-explainer/). Regarding 2020, there is zero evidence or correlation that link “leftist riots” and border patrol encounters. The claim that these “leftist riots” had anything to do with immigration is completely misleading.

Answer 2

15 million immigrants did not enter the country during the Biden administration. That number is based on the "encounters" of border agents and immigrants. They have been made to sound like all of them are crossing but the 15 million number also includes people who been sent back, legal refugees, and repeat offenders, etc. Here is my source : https://cmsny.org/correcting-record-false-misleading-statements-on-immigration/

 

Comments

Hi! It might be a good idea to also add that the Trump administration had a nearly 52.2 to 48.6% higher number of immigrants in comparison to the Biden administration. The statistic is in the same article that you linked.

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Good assertion, your source looks very trustworthy and includes plenty of sources within it's own right. I believe it may be beneficial to clarify what the actual number of estimated immigrants are in addition to what you mentioned.

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This is a good and to the point response, the original post misuses the data of encounters with the amount of immigrants actually illegally entering the country. I do believe to improve your response that some specific quotations from the source to emphasize the largely exaggerated claim made by the original post, yet this still is a clear and concise retort.

Answer 3

This claim that 15 million immigrants illegally entered the country during Biden's administration is misleading and untrue. While the original post this information was taken from is no longer active, after doing some of my own digging, I found that the Department of Homeland Security reported that 8 million illegal immigrants entered the country during Biden's administration. What is misleading about this is that they include border "encounters," meaning immigrants who were encountered and returned before entering. Similarly, they counted every encounter, even if it was from the same offender, which increased that number by around 20-25%. Moreover, it was stated that the Trump administration released a higher number of migrants into the country than the Biden administration, by 52.2 percent to 48.6 percent over two years. For my secondary source, I confirmed this by looking at the Migration Policy Institute, which estimated an even lower number of around 5.7 million. Migration Policy Institute is an nonparisan independent source that focuses on providing information rather than forcing a political agenda. Here are my sources.

https://ohss.dhs.gov/topics/immigration/immigration-enforcement/monthly-tables

https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/nationwide-encounters

https://www.migrationpolicy.org/news/fy2024-us-border-encounters-plunge

 

Answer 4

This post on BlueSky claims that during the Biden Administration, 15 million illegal immigrants entered the country. According to the official border and customs protection reports from 2017 to 2024, there were only 2.7 million border encounters. Considering that this is many more years than the Biden administration, but far less than 15 million illegal encounters its fair to conclude that the statement that "15 million illegals entered the country during the Biden Administration" is very exaggerated.

https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/cbp-enforcement-statistics-fy22

Answer 5

This is not supported by reliable data. Although there were record levels of unauthorized immigrants living in the US estimated to be 14 million, that does not mean they were entered by Biden.

There were riots, but on both sides. Some protested that escalated into violence and looting on both sides.

These statsitics are statistics taken out of context. Although the numbers might be correct, the context is wrong.

Answer 6

This claim seems to rely on the fact that the total population of U.S. unauthorized immigrants reached 14 million in 2023 that grew in 2024 but then saw a decline in 2025. This number is extremely exaggerated and is used to fit an agenda against the Biden administration. It is estimated that 11 million immigrants entered the U.S. between the years 2020 and 2025, including both illegally and legally. The highest number came in 2023, which saw 3 million enter. The previous claim is also made by someone who has a bias and a reason to exaggerate their numbers, seeing as their username features the "MAGA" acronym, common among supporters of Donald Trump. This gives an understanding of why the misleading number would have been thrown out: to bash the previous administration. The evidence I included undermines the reason that so many people were entering the country. Using the info provided by the Pew Research Center, I have determined the claim to be Exaggerated/ Misleading.

Answer 7

In the assumption that the claim "15 million illegals entered the U.S. during the Biden Administration" is taken from the Pew Research Center, then it would be false/misleading. The source expressed that in 2023, during Biden's administration, around "14 million" immigrants entered the US, which made the claim "15 million" false. Another source, called the Cato Institute, went further on this information by claiming that "Biden actually increased border enforcement—arrests, detentions, and removals of border crossers all increased". They expressed that due to the high inflow of immigrants, the administration could not keep up. They also wrote that the cause of immigration was due to unprecedented labor demands, immigration and enforcement policies like Title 42, as well as an increase in media usage in South America, which "gave people step-by-step instructions on migrating and connected them directly with smugglers". Although both sources could hold biases due to them being think tanks, both claim to be nonpartisan. With this information in mind, the claim that "15 million illegals entered the U.S. during the Biden Administration" is exaggerated and misleading. 

Sources: 

1. https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/2025/08/21/u-s-unauthorized-immigrant-population-reached-a-record-14-million-in-2023/
2. https://www.cato.org/blog/biden-didnt-cause-border-crisis-part-1-summary

Answer 8

After looking into this claim, I found that it is misleading. The number being used comes from border encounter data, not from the number of unique people who entered and stayed in the U.S. Border encounters can include the same person more than once and also include people who were expelled or removed. Because of this, the claim oversimplifies the data and makes it sound more definitive than it actually is. 

CBP publishes monthly data on southwest border encounters. These numbers reflect encounters with migrants, not unique individuals, and can include the same person multiple times. CBP explicitly cautions against interpreting encounters as total entries into the U.S. https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/southwest-land-border-encounters

DHS provides explanations of immigration enforcement actions and removals. The data clarifies that many individuals encountered at the border are expelled or removed rather than allowed to remain in the country. https://ohss.dhs.gov/

Reuters provides context on how border encounters are tracked and why these figures are frequently misinterpreted in political discourse. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/

Government agencies like CBP and DHS may present data in ways that reflect enforcement priorities, but they provide primary data and methodological explanations. Secondary sources such as Snopes and Reuters aim to clarify misinformation, though they may be perceived as biased depending on audience political beliefs. However, they cite primary data and explain limitations transparently.

There is evidence that millions of border encounters have occurred during the Biden administration. Large cumulative numbers exist in CBP data, which may give the impression of a very high level of border activity.

The claim incorrectly equates encounters with unique individuals who entered and stayed in the U.S. Evidence from CBP and DHS shows that encounters include repeat crossings and people who were expelled or removed. Therefore, the statement that “15 million illegals entered the U.S.” is not supported by how the data is defined.

The claim appears to originate from a social media post on Bluesky. I attempted to contact the user who shared the claim by messaging them on the platform to ask for clarification on the source of the figure. I did not receive a response.

Answer 9

After reviewing reporting from the BBC, the claim that 15 million illegal immigrants entered the U.S. during the Biden administration is misleading. The BBC explains that numbers often cited in political debates usually come from border encounter data, which tracks how many times migrants are encountered by U.S. authorities, not how many unique individuals actually enter or remain in the country. These figures can include the same person being counted multiple times and also include people who were turned away or expelled. While immigration encounters have increased during Biden’s presidency, the BBC notes that this does not mean 15 million undocumented immigrants successfully entered or are now living in the U.S. Presenting encounter data as a definitive count of “illegals entering” oversimplifies a complex issue and exaggerates what the data actually shows. Overall, the claim takes a large but misunderstood statistic and presents it as a confirmed fact, which is not supported by the evidence.

Source:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0jp4xqx2z3o