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Biden's migrant crisis: Border crossings rise 277% from Trump era
Migrants continued to enter the US illegally in near-record numbers last year, in a trend that will weigh on President Joe Biden as he defends his record against his likely challenger, Donald Trump.
Biden's migrant crisis: Illegal border crossings have jumped 277% from Trump's term - with overwhelmed Border Patrol struggling to cope with influx from Mexico, Cuba AND Canada
Migrants continued to enter the US illegally in near-record numbers last year, in a trend that will weigh on President Joe Biden as he defends his record against his likely 2024 election challenger, Donald Trump.
The US Border Patrol recorded 2,063,692 encounters with undocumented immigrants in the 2023 fiscal year, down just slightly from the record high reached in 2022.
Over Biden's first three years in office, Border Patrol recorded a total of 5,940,511 encounters, a 277 percent increase from the same period during Trump's term, from 2017 to 2019, according to US Customs and Border Patrol data.
Republicans blame Biden for the surge, after he relaxed a number of Trump-era border restrictions — policies which the Democrat has called inhumane and ineffective.
Immigration and the border remain top concerns for conservative voters ahead of the November 5 election, in which Biden will seek a second term and Trump is the leading candidate for his party's nomination.
The CBP enforcement statistics can be difficult to parse, due to changes in reporting methods and fluctuations due to pandemic policies and impacts.
But after the pandemic all but shuttered the border in 2020, the post-COVID surge in border crossings first seen in 2021 has showed little sign of slowing.
Excluding migrants quickly expelled under pandemic-era rules, the Border Patrol recorded 3,295,029 apprehensions from fiscal years 2021 to 2023, roughly coinciding with Biden's first three years in office.
That's still a 109 percent increase from the 1,574,174 apprehensions recorded during the same period during Trump's first three years in office, from fiscal 2017 to 2019.
While Biden's handling of the border has long drawn harsh criticism from Republicans, increasingly his fellow Democrats are calling for stronger action — including Arizona's governor and the mayors of New York and Chicago.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment from DailyMail.com, but the Biden administration has previously said it is working to restore an orderly and humane immigration system.
Ariel G. Ruiz Soto, a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, a liberal-leaning think tank, attributed the migration surge to a number of factors, including post-pandemic recessions in origin countries, enforcement challenges in Central America, and a lack of enforcement resources in the US.
'Unfortunately, the border is clearly not working,' he told DailyMail.com in a phone interview.
'The level of migration has surpassed the current levels of capacity at the border — that's not a question,' said Ruiz, adding that US agencies tasked with enforcing immigration law 'do not have the resources needed to be able to manage their operations.'
'That's something that is an executive priority that needs to change, but also a congressional one,' he said.
How Biden's border policies compare with Trump's
Biden has changed a number of Trump-era policies, with his administration saying its goal is to 'secure our border and rebuild a safe, orderly, and humane immigration system,' which the White House says 'was gutted by the previous administration.'
Following a court battle, Biden rolled back a Trump-era policy known as 'Remain in Mexico', the official title of which was the Migrant Protection Protocols.
The policy required asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for their immigration hearings to play out in the US.
Biden called the policy 'inhumane' and human rights groups said it put migrants at risk from criminal gangs in Mexico as they pleaded their asylum cases.
About 70,000 people were returned to Mexico under the policy, which Biden eventually rolled back in June 2022, after a Supreme Court ruling allowed his administration to terminate the policy.
I didn't know about the record number of illegals coming through the Canadian border.
People illegally crossings the border is so out of control even fellow Democrats are criticizing Biden.
The open border is also a national security issue. If a terrorist attack occurs and it's find out they came through the border the backlash could be massive.
