Republicans have subjected US President Joe Biden's border policy to harsh criticism since the beginning of his tenure which saw an abrupt influx of migrants through the Mexican border.
Currently, GOP presidential candidates and lawmakers are lashing out at Team Biden for failing to secure the southern frontier, prompting the latter to backpedal on its decision to axe the Donald Trump-era effort to build a border wall. Thus, in early October, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced plans to install 20 new miles of barriers along the Rio Grande in southeastern Texas.
US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data, released on Friday, indicated that US immigration enforcement released over 900,000 migrants into the country in fiscal 2023, marking the third consecutive year of record high illegal border crossings under Joe Biden.
Meanwhile, Center Square – a project of the Franklin News Foundation, a conservative online news organization – estimates that the number of illegals entering the US has reached a whopping 10 million since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021.
The media outlet cited official US CBP data for fiscal years 2020-2023. (CBP fiscal year is from October 1 to September 30). Given that CBP reported 3,201,144 apprehensions in fiscal 2023; 2,766,582 in fiscal 2022; 1,956,519 in fiscal 2021; and 471,954 in nine months of the Biden administration in fiscal 2020, the total number of official apprehensions amounts to 8,396,199.
The conservative media went on saying that the figure does not include "gotaway data," which CBP does not make public. However, the media noted that it managed to obtain those numbers from a Border Patrol agent, who spoke to the outlet on condition of anonymity.
Thus, the news outlet estimated that the minimum reported gotaways from January 1, 2021, to September 30, 2023 could be at least 1,678,979.
"Since January 2021, total illegal border crossers apprehended nationwide were 8,396,198. Combined with at least 1,678,979 gotaways, the number increases to over 10 million (at least 10,075,177)," the conservative media outlet noted.
The report lamented the fact that the gargantuan figure is greater than the individual populations of 41 states, adding that the only states with an estimated population greater than 10 million are California, Texas, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, Georgia, and North Carolina.
What's more, among those crossing the border illegally were thousands of suspected terrorists as well as drug and human traffickers, as per the conservative news outlet.
The burning border issue adds to the plummeting approval numbers of President Joe Biden, who announced his reelection bid in April. Joe's rating among his fellow Democratic Party members has slid 11 percentage points since September to 75%, while his overall approval has fallen to 37%, according to a new Gallup poll.