The missing facts from Nikki Haley’s claim about border crossings and deportations under Joe Biden

Republican 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."

Haley, who is also South Carolina’s former governor, has made similar claims at CNN and Fox News town halls.

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.

Nationwide data up to November 2023 shows that immigration officials have encountered migrants 8.1 million times under Biden. But the data represents events, not people. 

About 2.3 million people have been released into the U.S. under Biden’s administration, Department of Homeland Security data shows. Most of them are families, according to The Washington Post. About 356,000 children who crossed the border alone were also let in.

Separately, DHS estimates that about 391,000 people have evaded border authorities. (The latest data DHS has published is for fiscal year 2021, which includes about four months of the Trump administration.) 

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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement removed 142,000 people in fiscal year 2023. These removals happened after an official court order and can include people who have been living in the U.S. for years before Biden’s administration. The total number of ICE removals under Biden’s administration so far is about 245,000. 

But immigration officials also turn people away through border "returns" and "expulsions." Returns happen when officials dispatch people to their home countries without legal penalties and without formal removal proceedings. Up through mid-May 2023, officials also expelled people under Title 42, a public health policy; this began under the Trump administration as a way to mitigate COVID-19’s spread.

The Biden administration recorded about 2.5 million Title 42 expulsions through May 2023.

There have been more than 3.6 million removals, returns and expulsions from February 2021, Biden’s first month in office, to September 2023, based on Department of Homeland Security estimates. 

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. 

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.