With immigration a key focus of the 2024 presidential election, both Donald Trump and President Joe Biden are trying to show they are taking the issue seriously.
Illegal migrant crossings at the southwest border with Mexico have soared since Biden took office, but recent crackdowns on asylum seeker entries and an increase in deportations have begun to make an impact.
Trump is promising even more deportations should he win in November, and to bring back some of the hardline policies he introduced during his first term.
Here’s how the numbers on migrants, arrests and the move to U.S. citizenship stack up for both the previous and current president.
Brandon Bell/Kevin Dietsch/Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Overall encounters at the US border
Border crossings, particular on the U.S. border with Mexico, have risen sharply since Biden took office in 2021.
The highest number in recent years came in 2023, when the pandemic-era Title 42 measure was lifted and before Biden introduced stricter border controls in Spring 2024.
In 2023, 3.2 million encounters were recorded by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, compared to the highest year of Trump’s presidency, 2019, at 1.4 million.
During the last year of Trump’s administration, far tougher measures were in place at the border due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Encounters by nationality
By far the largest percentage of illegal crossings are by Mexicans, with only a slight change in 2019 when Guatemala and Honduras overtook the leader.
The peak for Mexicans crossing the border came in 2022 when 808,340 people were encountered.
The number has been falling over the past two years, with other nationalities outside the top ten slowly climbing since a near-total border closure in 2020.
Recently, Venezuela has been climbing the top ten list, along with Cuba and El Salvador.
Encounters by family status
The majority of those crossing the border are single people, with family units only taking the top spot in 2019, with 527,000 encounters compared to 368,650 singles.
Once again, 2020 looks like an anomaly as COVID-19 restrictions appeared to slow the number of families trying to make the crossing.
When it comes to unaccompanied children/minors, 2022 saw the largest number at 155,020. Save the Children said that many are fleeing violence in Central America and are seeking asylum when they cross the U.S. border.
Arrests by Border Patrol
Another area which has seen an increase since Biden entered the Oval Office is arrests of those with criminal convictions by Border Patrol.
The number peaked in 2023, with 35,433 people detained.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that criminals are pouring across the border, but studies have shown that American citizens were more likely to commit crimes than new migrant arrivals.
Immigrants in ICE detention
The number of people detained by ICE peaked during the Trump presidency, with 510,860 in 2019.
A large proportion of those in detention centers were from the top ten list of nationalities of illegal immigrants, including Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala.
Numbers dropped in 2020 but had risen steadily since.
Not all of those in ICE detention are convicted criminals, with a large percentage recorded as immigration violators.
Data for 2017 was not available under this category, but the second two years of the Trump administration outpaced the years since.
In recent weeks, there have been claims of abuse and neglect within ICE detention facilities.
Rising deportation numbers
While Trump has claimed he will instigate mass deportation, should he regain the White House, deportations have soared under Biden’s watch.
Over 1.4 million people were deported in 2022, with a record number repatriated in recent weeks.
While thousands of new arrivals were recorded, as mentioned above, large numbers were also sent back to their country of origin.
The nationalities in this chart mirror those in the top ten for new arrivals.
Republicans have complained, however, that other countries, including China, have not done enough to accept repatriations.
Asylum claims
Known as credible fear claims, the Department of Homeland Security records those who show up at the border seeking asylum protections.
Numbers of total claims dropped off between 2020 and 2022, but have risen since.
During the first three years of the Trump administration, a large percentage of those claims were approved, allowing passage into the U.S. with protected status.
Under the Biden administration, the difference between approved and denied applications – or positive and negative fear – has balanced out more. The introduction of stricter asylum crossings in June 2024 will likely have impacted the numbers recorded this year.
Naturalizations
While the focus is often on illegal immigrants, there is a steady flow of people becoming U.S. citizens.
While numbers, available up until 2022, remain relatively steady, the highest number of naturalizations came that year, with 969,380.
Latest immigration totals by state
Some DHS data only stretched to 2022, with reports released annually as opposed to CBP encounters, which are updated monthly.
The map below shows what the picture was like in 2022, including the population of lawful permanent residents in each state, as well as the asylum seeker population.
California, Texas, Florida and New York had the highest immigrant numbers, while those states in the north and center of the country had far fewer.
Legal immigration stats
The U.S. does process a number of legal immigrants and visitors each year, with many on the route to becoming permanent residents and then citizens.
The chart below shows that “non immigrants” make up a large percentage of that, as the category includes temporary work, family or student visas, along with visitors arriving as tourists or on business trips.
In 2021, there was a larger number of people granted lawful permanent resident – or Green Card – status, along with more naturalizations.
Much of this data came from Department of Homeland Security, CBP and USCIS information publicly available. Yearly data is based on the fiscal year, which runs from October of the previous calendar year through September – i.e. FY 2017 ran Oct. 2016-Sep. 2017.
Do you have a story Newsweek should be covering? Do you have any questions about this story? Contact LiveNews@newsweek.com
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.