During the 2020 election, then-President Donald Trump warned that his challenger, then-former Vice President Joe Biden, would undo and reverse all of the progress that had been made in securing the nation's borders and stemming the flood of illegal immigration into the country.

That warning proved prescient, as federal data shows that by the time President-elect Trump retakes office in January, outgoing President Biden's lax border and immigration policies will have allowed approximately nine million illegal migrants to enter the U.S., according to Breitbart.

Trump, who resoundingly won re-election last week in large part on his vows to address the situation, will now have to expend substantial time and resources to rectify the problems that Biden created in terms of poor border security and rampant illegal immigration.

Numbers don't lie

According to data compiled by U.S Customs and Border Protection, there were nearly 11 million encounters registered with illegal migrants and border officials between when President Biden first took office in January 2021 and September of this year.

That number from CBP doesn't count the low estimate of more than 2 million "gotaways" who are known to have entered the country illegally but avoided capture, much less the unknown number of those who entered illegally without ever being detected.

Meanwhile, according to the Department of Homeland Security, of those who entered the country illegally from January 2021 until June 2024, around 2.5 million were turned back under the Title 42 public health order that was rescinded in May 2023.

Additionally, over that same span of time, approximately 1.9 million illegal migrants were deported through "removals," "enforcement returns," and "administrative returns," leaving around 5.9 million of the illegal migrants to stay in the U.S. despite their illicit entry.

Millions of illegals allowed entry under Biden's watch

According to Breitbart, the CBP figures show that another roughly 600,000 migrants crossed the border illegally between June and October, approximately 400,000 of whom have thus far been permitted to stay.

It is further estimated that, between November and January of next year, an additional 300,000 illegal migrants will have been allowed to enter the country at the current rates.

When all of those figures are combined, per Breitbart, the total is near nine million, which doesn't count the unknown "gotaways" nor the estimated three million migrants who entered the U.S. through the legal process or the approximately 1.5 million visa workers and students, some of whom illegally stay after their visa has expired.

The Biden-Harris administration, with a helping hand from the biased media, routinely downplayed the severity of the situation caused by their lax enforcement and open borders policies, but the American people weren't buying it, which arguably played a significant part in President-elect Trump's re-election.

Trump ready to secure the borders again

The return of Trump to the White House in January comes with a vow to restore his tough enforcement policies of his first term that largely succeeded in securing the nation's borders and reducing illegal immigration to small and manageable numbers, and he has already signaled his seriousness about cracking down on the border again and deporting large numbers of illegal migrants.

In a Truth Social post on Monday, Trump wrote, "I am pleased to announce that the Former ICE Director, and stalwart on Border Control, Tom Homan, will be joining the Trump Administration, in charge of our Nation’s Borders ('The Border Czar'), including, but not limited to, the Southern Border, the Northern Border, all Maritime, and Aviation Security."

"I’ve known Tom for a long time, and there is nobody better at policing and controlling our Borders. Likewise, Tom Homan will be in charge of all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin," the incoming president added. "Congratulations to Tom. I have no doubt he will do a fantastic, and long awaited for, job."