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FACT BRIEF

Has the Biden administration 'allowed 6 million migrants to come into this country and stay'?

By Tom Kertscher
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NO

No official statistics say 6 million migrants have entered the U.S. and stayed since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021.

Through November 2023, immigration authorities recorded 8.2 million encounters, according to tabulations of U.S. Customers and Border Protection data by the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.

An encounter is one person met one time by border authorities.

The best count of migrants remaining in the U.S., according to the institute, is from Homeland Security Department “enforcement lifecycle” reports, which track individual migrants.

At least 3.1 million migrants remained as of September 2023, according to the latest count.

Republicans have said there have also been 1.7 million known migrants observed crossing unlawfully.

Those migrants are estimated and estimation methods vary along the border, Soto said.

The immigrant advocacy group American Immigration Council agreed with the 3.1 million figure and the other figures reported by the institute.

See a full discussion of this at Wisconsin Watch
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
US Customs and Border Protection CBP Public Data Portal
Google Docs Ariel Ruiz Soto email 1/24/24
US Department of Homeland Security Reporting Terminology and Definitions
US Department of Homeland Security Enforcement Lifecycle Reports
US House of Representatives NEW DATA REVEAL WORSENING MAGNITUDE OF THE BIDEN BORDER CRISIS AND LACK OF INTERIOR IMMIGRATION
US House of Representatives FACTSHEET: Final FY23 Numbers Show Worst Year at America’s Borders—Ever – Committee on Homeland Security
Google Docs Aaron Reichlin-Melnick email 1/24/24
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Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.