Former President Donald Trump has made immigration reform a central aspect of his Republican primary campaign, with promises to begin the largest deportation operation in American history if elected to a second term.
During this campaign, Trump has also repeated several debunked claims about migration and border security, inflating the size of the border wall built during his administration and the unfounded belief that people from "insane asylums" are being emptied from facilities and migrating to the U.S.
In a speech following the U.S. Supreme Court decision to keep him on the Colorado primary ballot, Trump made a host of unrelated claims, including his estimate that the number of migrants who had crossed the border during Joe Biden's presidency may have reached nearly 15 million people.
The Claim
A post on Truth Social by Donald Trump, posted on March 4, 2023, included a video in which Trump said he believed the "real number" of migrants that had attempted to cross the U.S. border during Joe Biden's presidency "was probably closer to 15 million people."
The Facts
The context of Trump's claims relates to encounters at the southern border, with Trump also speaking about his construction of the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
No evidence supports that 15 million people, or a number close to it, have attempted to cross the border during Biden's presidency.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, there have been 7,332,800 encounters on the southern border since January 2021.
There are additional "gotaway" cases, in which migrants have evaded authorities. In a February 2024 article by FactCheck.org, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson said the "estimated annual apprehension rate has averaged 78%."
Even if we were to apply an estimate of "gotaways" to the total using that rate, it does not account for the number of people within that number who have attempted to enter the U.S. more than once, nor the number of people who were removed under Title 42 alone, estimated to have been used more than 2.8 million times.
After that, as noted by FactCheck.org, which assessed figures from February 2021 to October 2023, the DHS is thought to have removed, returned or expelled about 57 percent of migrants it encountered.
Trump's belief that 15 million people have entered the United States, even if we were to include "gotaways" into that total and fold in encounters that included more than one attempt at entry, isn't supported by the available evidence.
Newsweek has contacted a representative for Trump via email for comment.
The Ruling
False.
There is no evidence to support this claim. Encounters on the southern border from January 2021 to January 2023 totaled about 7.3 million.
The figures, however, include encounters in which people have attempted to cross the southern border more than once and the millions of immigrants who have been removed, returned or expelled from the border.
Even if estimates for those who have managed to evade authorities are factored in, there are no grounds to suggest that 15 million people, or a figure close to it, have entered the U.S. during Biden's presidency.
FACT CHECK BY Newsweek's Fact Check team
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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