Cruz: “10.4 Million” Illegals Have Entered the U.S. under Biden

by Sharon Rondeau

(Feb. 18, 2024) — In a top-of-the-hour interview with Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures,” U.S. Sen. from Texas Ted Cruz (R) said the total number of illegal aliens who have breached the nation’s borders since Joe Biden took office is “10.4 million.”

As he was speaking, the Fox News chyron reported “10 million” as the number, while other members of Congress have reported it to be approximately “8 million.”

On Tuesday, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp quoted the number of illegals having crossed the U.S.-Mexico border as “8.5 million,” with a news report clarifying:

When factoring numbers from February 2021 through December 2023, U.S. Customs and Border Protection data shows that border patrol agents have documented 8,545,192 encounters nationwide. 

That’s about 8.5 million encounters at both the northern and southern U.S. borders, according to U.S. CBP data. 

When narrowing down encounters to the southwest border from February 2021 through the most recent data provided by U.S. CBP, which is January 2024, that number is 7,254,386. 

As the Biden regime has progressed, the number of illegals permitted to enter and remain in the country has broken previous records on a monthly basis.

In an article last week, Newsweek attempted to credit Biden with a reported “42 percent [drop in illegal-alien border encounters] from December to January.”

“The Biden administration could breathe huge sigh of relief” as a result, Newsweek proclaimed.

“Migrant encounters at the Southwest land border, a source of consternation for states like Texas and Arizona, fell from 301,983 in December to 176,205 in January,” the article reports, without acknowledging that recent measures taken by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott are reportedly largely responsible for the dramatic decrease in illegal-alien crossings.

Another Newsweek article, however, reports:

Governor Greg Abbott‘s tightening of security along the Texas-Mexico border is likely pushing illegal migrants to attempt crossings in neighboring states instead, according to a prominent political scientist who said California and Arizona have been turned into national “weak spots.”

A link from that article to a third at the same outlet states:

The number of migrant encounters on the Texas border dropped dramatically in January compared with previous months, according to new U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data.

Texas has been the epicenter of the U.S.-Mexico border battle for the past year and a half, as Governor Greg Abbott has taken matters into his own hands due to the perceived inaction of the Biden administration and federal government. That has included lawsuits and federal court battles involving the use of razor wire in high-traversed areas such as Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, and floating barriers in the Rio Grande.

Crossings on the southwest land border in Texas totaled 68,260 in January, according to the CBP statistics—a massive drop from the 149,806 migrants who attempted to enter the country through the state in December. Encounters there totaled 119,628 and 111,129 in October and November, respectively.

One week after Biden took office, The New York Times reported he planned to “legalize 11 million immigrants.”