A senior House Republican expects the number of migrants encountered by federal border authorities under the Biden administration to reach 10 million by the end of this summer, a number that has never been seen in even two-term presidential administrations.
Approximately a quarter of a million migrants were encountered at the nation’s borders in April, bringing the total since Feb. 1, 2021, several days after President Joe Biden took office, to 9.57 million.
At the current rate, the Biden administration will hit the never-before-seen figure of 10 million people encountered in a single term of a president in the coming months, according to House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-TN).
“It is unbelievable that we are on track to hit 10 million encounters nationwide before this fiscal year is even over — and that doesn’t count the roughly 2 million or more known got-aways on this administration’s watch,” Green wrote in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
“President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas continue to break all the wrong records, and it’s overwhelming our Border Patrol agents, CBP officers, and AMO agents on the frontlines of this historic crisis,” Green said. “The American people should not have to bear another day of this self-inflicted disaster.”
At no time in history during any White House administration has that many migrants come to the border — even in two terms.
The situation has triggered criticism from Republicans who have accused the Biden administration many times in congressional hearings of failing to respond adequately to the unprecedented surge of migrants over the past 40 months.
Green’s committee passed two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas earlier this year. Mayorkas was impeached by the House in February for willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law and a breach of the public trust for his handling of border security, but the Senate chose not to hold a trial, letting him off the hook.
Encounters, which include non-U.S. citizens who either enter the country illegally or are deemed inadmissible at a port of entry, have remained between 192,000 and 371,000 per month since March 2021, according to Customs and Border Protection data.
In the decade leading up to the Biden administration, encounters ranged from 40,000 to 80,000 per month.
One of the greatest changes in migration under Biden has been in where migrants are traveling from. For decades, Mexican men composed the large majority of migrants arriving at the border until a decade ago, when Central American families began making the journey, aided by cartels that recruit and charge people thousands of dollars each to move them to the United States.
A CBP official told the Washington Examiner earlier this week that the smuggling organizations have greatly broadened their scope since 2020, increasing at unprecedented rates the number of migrants being smuggled from Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America.
The Biden administration has expanded ways for migrants outside the U.S. to enter the country legally without walking across illegally.