Did Biden “allow” millions of illegal immigrants into the U.S. during his presidency?

Former President Joe Biden did not implement anything resembling an open border policy that would have allowed millions of undocumented residents into the country.

A Sarasota Herald-Tribune letter to the editor claims that the death of Renee Good at the hands of an ICE agent was linked to Biden allowing “illegal immigrants to flow into our country by the millions.” 

Border security policies weren’t intentionally weakened during Biden’s presidency. In fact, in 2024, ICE deported the most undocumented immigrants in almost a decade at the time. Roughly the same amount of undocumented immigrants were deported under Biden as the 1.5 million Trump had during his first term.

Illegal immigration did rise early in Biden’s term. However, analysts point out that Biden likely inherited the problem, rather than caused it, due to global conditions such as high U.S. job demand and poor economic conditions in the home countries of migrants.