Fact check: Have '8 million' migrants come to the U.S. under Biden?
Republican presidential candidates Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis have each claimed that 8 million immigrants have entered the U.S. through the southern border since Joe Biden became president.
Posted — UpdatedRepublican primary presidential candidate Nikki Haley has pledged to deport people who have come to the U.S. illegally under President Joe Biden’s administration, as her rivals characterize her as soft on immigration.
"The 8 million that have come in illegally, we have to send them back because you have to look at the fact that every time we allow them to come in, we're incentivizing more to come," Haley, the former United Nations ambassador, said in a Jan. 5 interview with Iowa PBS. "The idea that we've had 8 million and they only sent back 142,000 should scare everybody."
During a Jan. 8 Fox News town hall, Haley repeated the 8 million figure and said "Biden sent back only 142,000 last year. That’s it."
Haley makes it sound as if 8 million people are now living illegally in the U.S. and only 142,000 have been deported, and that’s not so.
How many people have been sent out after reaching the border?
This data also represents events, not people. So, the same person can be expelled multiple times and each time would count as a separate expulsion.
PolitiFact ruling
Haley said, "We’ve had 8 million" immigrants come to the U.S. illegally under Biden and they only sent back 142,000."
There have been 8.1 million encounters with migrants nationwide under Biden, but that number does not represent unique individuals. And not all who were stopped were allowed to stay in the U.S.
The 142,000 refers only to ICE removals in fiscal year 2023. But that is not the only way migrants can be sent out of the U.S. There have been 3.6 million removals, returns and expulsions under Biden’s administration. This data also represents events, not people.
Haley’s claim contains an element of truth in the numbers she cites but ignores additional data and critical context about immigration.
We rate it Mostly False.
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