Storming the Gates
Part 3: Here Comes the Flood
Previously: Part One, Part Two.
3. Here Comes the Flood
Before we turn our attention to all the various groups harmed by illegal immigration, there is one more piece of context to establish: Just how large was the surge of illegal immigration during the ‘Joe Biden’ Administration? Surely in this age of mass surveillance our government must have an accurate estimate of how many people have entered, and are living in, our country illegally, right?
It turns out that not only is the number highly debated, but the estimates that you are led to believe vary wildly depending on your political leanings and where you get your news. Let’s dive in.
That the Biden Administration enabled mass immigration is incontrovertible, though both Biden and later Harris would try to run from the border during the campaign. The Administration claimed not only that the crossings at the border were not a crisis, but that they were powerless to stop them. Trump, through Executive Order, made closing the border a priority on his first day back in office. The results were immediate:
Anyone looking at the situation fairly must scratch their head and wonder, how did the US Southern Border become so chaotic during the Biden/Harris Administration? The answer to that lies in public policy, beginning with the Executive Orders Biden passed on his first day in office:
January 20, 2021: Biden terminated the national emergency declaration at the southern border and halted construction of the border wall.
January 20, 2021: Biden issues an executive order revising civil immigration enforcement policies and priorities, revoking Trump-era orders that prioritized removal of criminal aliens.
January 20, 2021: Biden issued a memorandum pausing most deportations for 100 days, with exceptions for national security threats and recent arrivals.
January 20, 2021: Biden issued a memorandum to preserve and fortify Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), directing actions to protect “Dreamers.”
January 20, 2021: Biden suspended new enrollments in the policy known as Remain in Mexico, allowing migrants to pour into the United States as they awaited asylum hearings (more on that later).
All of these first day priorities made immigration enforcement more difficult, they also signaled to the world that America’s borders were open. But it didn’t stop there:
February 2, 2021: Biden rescinded Trump-era memorandum aimed at ending “catch and release” policies. This meant that those caught entering the country could now legally claim “asylum” and be released into the United States awaiting their court dates–which due to the flood of migrants this policy created could take from several months up to six years. This policy was among many that created confusion around legal status and flooded the immigration courts.
February 18, 2021: Biden narrowed deportation focus to national security threats, public safety risks, and recent border crossers. Once you were in, your illegally crossing was essentially forgiven.
March 9, 2021: Biden announced the government would no longer defend the Trump-era public charge rule, which considered immigrants’ use of public benefits in admissibility decisions. Not only were illegals welcome in the country, they could now use the social safety net paid for by the tax dollars of US citizens without consequences.
2021-2023: Extended Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to approximately 1.7 million potential new beneficiaries from various countries, providing work authorization and deportation protection.
January 2023: Announced humanitarian parole programs for nationals of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela which allowed up to 30,000 people per month to enter legally.
January 2023: Launched the CBP One app to allow migrants to schedule asylum appointments at ports of entry. Illegal immigration was now as simple as completing some forms on an app, booking a ticket, and entering the country on an asylum claim—the vast majority of which were false.
That’s a lot of policy to digest, but I lay it out to make clear that what happened next is not just the way things are, it was a flood of illegal immigration that came from policy decisions—Democrat policy decisions. Not so long ago, the Democratic party vocally opposed all of these policies.
Still, we haven’t yet answered the question of just how many people took advantage of these policies and entered our country illegally.
Below is a range of estimates depending on who you choose to trust:
The Department of Homeland Security puts the number prior to 2025 at 14 million, with numbers currently around 11 million after deportations and self-deportations since Trump’s second term began.
The 11 million number is also reached by the Migration Policy Institute (a non partisan research organization) which estimates 11.3 million entered.
The Center for Migration Students–a liberal think tank–puts the number at 11.7 million.
In 2024, the Pew Research Center placed the number around 14 million (confirming DHS estimates).
On the campaign trails, Trump put the number at 20 million which has been repeated by cabinet members. I cannot substantiate this claim with available data.
Such numbers are hard to visualize, so I took a look at US population by State to help make sense of them.
If we were to add together the total population of US states from least to most dense, we would need to add the populations of Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Delaware, Rhode Island, Montana, Maine, New Hampshire, and Hawaii to reach 11 million people.
To get to 20 million, we will need to take those 11 states and add the populations of five more states–West Virginia, Nebraska, Idaho, New Mexico, and Mississippi. When you consider that very few of these illegal aliens come from Europe, then suddenly a conspiracy like the “Great Replacement Theory” starts to have legs (more on this later when we discuss England).
In less than two years, the Biden administration let in illegal aliens totaling over three times the one-year US population growth of native-born citizens–and that’s just counting the ones that we’re aware of. Illegal aliens are no longer a small, hard working invisible class confined to cities and agriculture, they are now a sizable underclass with few legal rights and protections, that draw down public resources, that alter the cultural fabric of our nation when they resist assimilation, and who have the ability to swing elections permanently in the favor of the political party that buys their favor with free social services.
A Note about Asylum Seekers
Like the phrase “illegal alien,” the phrase “asylum seeker” has also been muddied in recent years by those who want to obscure language to push their political agenda. True asylum has always been reserved for those facing genuine persecution: the Afghan interpreter who aided American forces against the Taliban, the Cuban dissident defying a communist regime, or the individual targeted for political beliefs or protected characteristics. Political asylum was never meant to include economic refugees. According to the world banks as recently as Fall 2025, nearly a billion people in the world live on $3.00 a day or less. How many of those people are US tax payers responsible for, and why is admitting them into our nation as an invisible underclass the most responsible way to support them?
Under the Biden administration illegal migrants were able to cross the border, assert asylum claims, and then be released into the United States without further vetting pending a court date. By 2025, there were around 2.4 million formal asylum filings waiting to be heard. Many who claimed asylum never showed for the court dates they were given, and with interior enforcement effectively dismantled, some 4.8 million individuals with final deportation orders are now living in the country.
Another change that has occurred recently is in the demographics of those coming into the country. When most people think of illegals, they picture those from Mexico and neighboring Latin American countries (our “hemispheric neighbors” so to speak). But while traditional hemispheric migration continued under Biden, the country also saw a surge of non-hemispheric nationals surge to 10–15% of all encounters.
Human trafficking into the United States was now a thriving global industry for nefarious actors willing to take advantage of the situation. Panama reported a 450% overall increase in those crossing the Darién Gap during this period–the most inhospitable portion of Latin America to cross where untold numbers of migrants lost their lives or were brutalized by thugs looking to take advantage of their poverty and powerlessness.
Politically, the surge ignited widespread discontent domestically. Polls consistently ranked immigration among top voter concerns, with majorities (often 70%+) favoring reduce immigration both legally and illegally. What is a nation without sovereignty and security? If anyone can come here, and no normalization or enforcement of our language or culture occurs, then how can we still be country?
Collectively, all of these Biden era policies taken together represents a deliberate abandonment of border security, creating a humanitarian, fiscal, and security crisis. That crisis is what Trump inherited one year ago, a reality that few currently rioting in Minneapolis are willing to grapple with.
The impact of these failed policies on human suffering was brutal, the focus of the remainder of this essay.