It's no secret that the United States' border is anything but closed, secure, or under control as President Joe Biden and his administration claim. The record number of illegal immigrants being apprehended since Biden took office — and the number of known "gotaways" — is sobering, yet it goes almost completely ignored by the Biden administration and mainstream media.
After so many months of new records for the number of illegal immigrants being encountered or witnessed slipping into the country, it can be easy to lose sight of the staggering scope of President Biden's ineffective immigration and border policies that have enriched criminal cartel syndicates, led to the violent abuse and deaths of illegal immigrants, and allowed individuals on terror watch lists or carrying deadly drugs to cross what is essentially a border open to all.
According to Customs and Border Protection, since January 2021 when Biden took the oath of office, there have been 5,118,661 encounters with illegal immigrants along the southern border. Add to that the number of known "gotaways" — illegal immigrants who were either spotted visually by border agents or detected via unmanned monitoring equipment and not apprehended — since Biden took office, and the number of illegal immigrants who've entered the country is even greater.
Through the first half of Biden's term from January 2021 through January 2023, Customs and Border Protection reported 1.2 million "gotaways." That is, at least 1.2 million illegal immigrants were confirmed to have unlawfully crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. The actual number of illegal immigrants who entered the country unimpeded is, by nature of the crime, unknown. It could be double the number of known gotaways, it could be three times worse, or more. We just don't know, thanks to Biden's border policies.
So with 5.1 million encounters of illegal immigrants since January 2021 and at least 1.2 million known illegal immigrant "gotaways," that's a confirmed minimum of 6.3 million illegal immigrants entering the U.S. since Biden took office with the promise to "build back better."
For added context to such a number, Biden has allowed a greater quantity of illegal immigrants into the United States than the number of people who live in each of the following 33 states (and two territories):
- Alabama, population 5,024,279.
- Alaska, population 733,391.
- Arkansas, population 3,011,524.
- Colorado, population 5,773,714.
- Connecticut, population 3,605,944.
- Delaware, population 989,948.
- District of Columbia, population 689,545.
- Hawaii, population 1,455,271.
- Idaho, population 1,839,106.
- Iowa, population 3,190,369.
- Kansas, population 2,937,880.
- Kentucky, population 4,505,836.
- Louisiana, population 4,657,757.
- Maine, population 1,362,359.
- Maryland, population 6,177,224.
- Minnesota, population 5,706,494.
- Mississippi, population 2,961,279.
- Missouri, population 6,154,913.
- Montana, population 1,084,225.
- Nebraska, population 1,961,504.
- Nevada, population 3,104,614.
- New Hampshire, population 1,377,529.
- New Mexico, population 2,117,522.
- North Dakota, population 779,094.
- Oklahoma, population 3,959,353.
- Oregon, population 4,237,256.
- Puerto Rico, population 3,285,874.
- Rhode Island, population 1,097,379.
- South Carolina, population 5,118,425.
- South Dakota, population 886,667.
- Utah, population 3,271,616.
- Vermont, population 643,077.
- West Virginia, population 1,793,716.
- Wisconsin, population 5,893,718.
- Wyoming, population 576,851.
For more comparison, the 6.3 million (known) illegal immigrants who've entered the United States since Biden took office is equal to the entire population of El Salvador, one of the countries whose residents Vice President Kamala Harris told not to come to the U.S. It's also close to the number of people who live in Nicaragua (6.9 million) and more than half the population of Honduras (10.3 million).
Biden's border crisis has gotten so grave that he's allowed the equivalent of an entire Central American country worth of people to illegally enter the United States. A quantity of illegal border crossers that is greater than the population of 35 different states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
That's just since January of 2021, and now the Biden administration is facing down the expiration of Title 42 on Thursday night at 11:59 p.m. ET. The mainstream media has even had to take note of the problem that's only going to get worse along the southern border, but the problem has been getting worse since Biden's first day in office in January 2021. To think that the United States hasn't even seen the worst of Biden's immigration policy is a stark reminder of the very real consequences of President Biden and his administration's abdication of duty and denial of responsibility along America's border.
Editor's Note: Townhall's Julio Rosas is at the U.S.-Mexico border this week covering the reality on the ground as a bad situation grows worse ahead of Title 42's expiration. Stay with Townhall and follow @TownhallCom for the latest.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member