Biden border crisis: 13 million illegal immigrants now in US

As President Joe Biden’s open-border policies prompt daily stadium-sized lines of immigrants seeking entry from Mexico into the United States, thousands more are crossing undetected.

A new estimate this week put the growing population of “gotaways” at a sky-high 13 million, more than the population of every state except four: California, Texas, New York, and Florida.

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“I think the number is around, now, probably close to 13 million,” said Steven Camarota, the research director for the Center for Immigration Studies.

He provided the new estimate at a conference held this week, during which he released a new census-based report showing that there are almost 50 million foreign-born citizens in the country, far more than previously expected by the government and likely driven by the spike in Biden administration-approved immigrants flooding into the country.

Camarota explained that there is no way to count the population of gotaways exactly but that there are accepted formulas.

“Could the number be bigger than we think? Yes. Could it be a million, maybe even two million bigger than we think? Yes,” he said.

At 49.5 million, the known foreign-born population is the largest percentage of the U.S. it has ever been, even bigger than during the great migrations that took place over a century ago.

“Focusing on the period after President Biden took office in January 2021 shows an increase of 4.5 million. The increase during Biden’s first 34 months is unprecedented. What is so striking about the recent run-up in the number of immigrants is that the increase represents a net change, not merely new inflow,” Camarota’s report said.

What’s more, he said that border crossings have surged far beyond past history-makers during the Bush, Obama, and Trump presidencies.

“Looking at each presidency shows that growth since the start of the Biden administration is dramatically higher. So far it has averaged 137,000 a month since President Biden took office compared to 42,000 a month during Trump’s presidency before COVID-19 hit — January 2017 to February 2020. The average increase during Biden’s presidency is nearly double the 76,000 a month average during Obama’s second term and significantly more than double the average increase of 59,000 in Obama’s first term. If Obama’s presidency is taken as a whole, growth averaged about 68,000 per month. Averaging many months together reduces month-to-month fluctuation and shows that the pace of growth during the Biden administration has been much higher than his immediate predecessors,” the report said.

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On the Senate floor on Wednesday, Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) ripped the president’s policies for letting too many immigrants into the country.

“Since last week, the scope, scale, and seriousness of the Biden border crisis has accelerated. One week ago, an all-time record-high of over 12,000 illegal immigrants crossed the southern border illegally,” he said.

“To put that number in perspective, President Obama’s Homeland Security Secretary, Jeh Johnson, said in 2019 that 1,000 encounters a day would overwhelm the system. Let‘s be clear about why this crisis is happening. President Biden gambled with Americans’ safety and security,” added the senator.