Former President Joe Biden’s open borders policy led to a record population of illegal migrants in the United States, according to a new report.

Once a fairly steady population of about 11 million to 12 million, the Biden surge pushed the population to 18.6 million when he left office.

Recommended Stories

• White House seethes over ‘stab in the back’ by OpenAI chief 
• White House Report Card: A target in motion is harder to hit
• Most agree: ‘Drain the swamp’

That, according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, was a 28.2% increase over the previous Trump administration’s numbers.

“Americans have seen the impact of the illegal immigration crisis play out in their communities all across the country. This new report provides hard data on the enormity of the illegal immigration surge that took place as a result of policies put in place by the Biden administration,” said Dan Stein, president of FAIR, an advocacy group critical of open borders.

Since starting his second term, President Donald Trump has focused on closing the border to illegal entries and deporting criminal illegal immigrants already inside the United States. But that is proving to be difficult due to sanctuary policies in place in some of America’s largest cities, such as Los Angeles, Boston, New York and Chicago.

“Since taking office, the Trump administration has taken decisive steps to reduce the influx of illegal aliens across the border. But this new report demonstrates just how much damage has been done and highlights the need to revoke parole and TPS for those who should not have received it and step up the effort to remove millions of people who should not be here,” Stein concluded.

Estimating the illegal immigrant population has been difficult in the past. In its new report, titled How Many Illegal Aliens Are in the United States? 2025 Update, FAIR used U.S. Census data as its base.

SEE THE LATEST POLITICAL NEWS AND BUZZ FROM WASHINGTON SECRETS

FAIR explained:

“The surge in illegal immigration was so large that the U.S. Census Bureau announced just three months ago it has changed its methodology for estimating the foreign-born population to account for it. By its own admission, between July 2021 and July 2022, the Census Bureau missed a net foreign migration of roughly 700,000 people, revising its estimate upward by nearly 70 percent, or from 1 million to 1.7 million. From July 2022 to July 2023, the Census Bureau revised its estimate upward again by an extraordinary 101.7 percent, adding 1.15 million more foreign nationals to its initial estimate of 1.13 million. And between July 2023 and July 2024, the Census Bureau estimated that net international migration had reached nearly 2.8 million for that 12-month period, a completely unprecedented total.

“FAIR took these revised Census Bureau estimates of the foreign-born population and produced a new estimate of the illegal alien population, which FAIR estimates now stands at 18.6 million.”