Obama administration (2009–2017) In 2014, the US declared a crisis at the border due to an influx of unaccompanied minors and women making their way through checkpoints.
Proposed legislative remedies near
Rio Grande City, 2016 In June 2013, the Senate approved the most comprehensive immigration overhaul bill since 1986. Negotiated by a bipartisan group of eight senators, fourteen Republicans joined all Democrats in voting for the measure; President Obama promised to sign it. Most conservative Republicans opposed the bill and said it would be dead on arrival in the House. The bill provided for increased border security, including 20,000 new border patrol officers, completion of 700 miles of border fencing, and new border surveillance equipment. The bill also provided a "path to citizenship" for some eleven million illegal immigrants already living in the country.
Gallup polling found the overhaul was broadly supported by both Democrats and Republicans. Speaker
John Boehner refused to consider the bill in the House, promising "to do our own bill." No immigration reform bill emerged.
Legacy The immigration legacy of the Obama Administration is marked by complexity. While it was known for its stringent enforcement of immigration laws, resulting in the deportation of a significant number of migrants, the establishment of
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) stands out. This initiative has protected from deportation over 750,000 individuals who were brought to the U.S. as children. Though no permanent solution was put in place, DACA was a success, allowing individuals within the program to pursue higher education.
First Trump administration (2017–2021) 's
McAllen, Texas station, 2019 examines border wall prototypes in
Otay Mesa, San Diego. for "
Families Belong Together". In January 2019, Trump introduced the
Migrant Protection Protocols (also known as "Remain in Mexico"), which forced asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their US immigration hearings. About 70,000 people were returned to Mexico as a result. The Trump administration asked migrants to take a number at the border and to wait until they are called for a chance to have their asylum cases heard. As a result, in September 2019, the US immigration court faced over one million waiting for their cases to be heard, matching the highest backlog seen in the US. In September 2019, the
US Supreme Court allowed a new ruling to take effect that could curtail most asylum applications at the border. The ruling would demand that most asylum seekers who pass through another country first will be ineligible for asylum at the US's southern border.
Mark A. Morgan, acting commissioner of the
US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), stated the ruling was set to take effect the week of October 8, 2019. In several places, dangers including kidnapping, murder, and sexual assault threatened thousands of Central American migrants who had been clustered in Mexican border cities like
Matamoros, Tamaulipas for months, blocked from seeking asylum in the US because of new restriction policies. The US government and
United Nations provided free transportation to return refugees to their homes in Central America, but many others who were stuck in Matamoros said that desperation had led them to consider treacherous and potentially life-threatening methods of
illegal entry—crossing the river, climbing into tractor-trailers driven by human smugglers, or both. In 2019, as the USBP reported, the number of migrants caught hiding in tractor-trailers along the border had risen by 40 percent that year. In March 2020, Trump instituted
Title 42, which allowed U.S. authorities to swiftly expel migrants, including asylum seekers, at the border. Between its implementation and January 2021, nearly 400,000 people were expelled through Title 42. On January 16, 2021, Guatemala and Mexico deployed the military to their borders, in an attempt to stop a migrant caravan from transiting through their countries on the way to the US.
Biden administration (2021–2025) On his first day in office, Biden halted the construction of the
Mexico–United States border wall, ending the
national emergency declared by the Trump administration on February 1, 2019. He also suspended Trump's "Remain in Mexico" policy, and while a court initially blocked its cancellation, the
Supreme Court of the United States upheld it on June 30, 2022. The USBP reported 5,858 encounters with unaccompanied children in January 2021 and 9,457 in February 2021. This was the largest percentage increase month-to-month since CBP began tracking the data point in 2010. On February 21, 2021, a group of migrants was found massacred in northern Mexico. A few months later, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported that various colored bracelets with writing on them were being used as a method to track a migrant's payment status to their
coyote and
drug cartels that control various parts of Mexico. The bracelets reportedly are used for tracking status of protection from cartel actions such as death, kidnapping, and the right to be in cartel controlled territory or to cross the border into the US. On March 18, 2021, amid a rise in migrants entering the US from Mexico, Biden told migrants, "Don't come over." He said that the US was arranging a plan for migrants to apply for asylum in place, without leaving their original locations, and that migrant adults would be continue to be sent back under Title 42. Biden earlier announced that his administration would not deport unaccompanied migrant children; the rise in arrivals of such children exceeded the capacity of facilities meant to shelter them (before they were sent to sponsors), leading the Biden administration in March to direct the
Federal Emergency Management Agency to help manage these children, but facilities are being overwhelmed because of the numbers of adults and children coming into the country. On March 24, 2021, Biden asked Vice President
Kamala Harris to work with Mexico and
Northern Triangle nations to curb the current flow of migrants to the border and develop a long-term solution. In June 2021, Harris visited Guatemala and Mexico in an attempt to address the root causes of
migration from Central America to the United States. During her visit, in a joint press conference with Guatemalan President
Alejandro Giammattei, Harris issued an appeal to potential migrants, stating "I want to be clear to folks in the region who are thinking about making that dangerous trek to the United States-Mexico border: Do not come. Do not come." The USBP detained more than 1.7 million migrants crossing the Mexico–US border illegally in the 2021 fiscal year, the largest annual total on record. According to
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data, in fiscal year 2022, undocumented immigrant crossings reached 2.76 million. One month before the end of fiscal year 2023, crossings for that year reached 2.8 million. CBP reported a monthly record of approximately 250,000 migrant encounters in December 2023. 7.2 million migrants were encountered between January 2021 and January 2024, more than the individual populations of 36 states. Over 1.5 million migrants were additionally recorded as "gotaways", detected illegally crossing the border while evading the CBP, up from about 521 thousand between 2017 and 2020. The DHS has said the true number of illegal entries is not known because an unknown number evade detection. In fiscal year 2023, CBP figures showed that 169 people on the
United States' terrorist watch list were arrested at the border, compared to 98 in 2022 and 15 in 2021. According to a November 30, 2021
Gallup poll, only 31 percent of Americans approved of the president's handling of immigration. Progressives have pressed the Biden administration to impede the expulsions and provide asylum to migrants who have legitimate claims of persecution in their homelands. It was stated in April that the order would be lifted on May 8, 2022, with new plans in place to deal with the influx. s: 42U.S.Code §265 governs suspension of entries to prevent spread of communicable diseases. Shown: expulsions from the southwest U.S. border at the time of the
COVID-19 pandemic. , the drop in gotaways allowed border patrol to apprehend more criminals and make the border more secure. However, as of February 2024, Biden deported or expelled a smaller share of migrants who crossed the border than Donald Trump did. Deportations by
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) also fell to an average of 35,000 per year, versus 80,000 a year during Trump's presidency. It has also relied heavily on
parole, including the humanitarian parole of detained migrants, and targeted programs for certain nationalities. Nearly 530,000 migrants between January 2023 and August 2024 legally flew to the United States under parole programs for four Latin American countries, On January 17, 2024, a non-binding resolution denouncing the Biden-Harris administration's handling of the U.S. southern border passed the
House of Representatives by a vote of 225–187, with all Republicans and 14 Democrats supporting it. Many Republicans and conservative commentators alleged
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas committed "willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law" as justification for impeachment. Constitutional scholars, Democrats, and some conservatives asserted Republicans were improperly using impeachment to address immigration policy disputes rather than for
high crimes and misdemeanors, of which there was no evidence. On February 13, 2024, Mayorkas was
impeached on a 214–213 party-line vote by the
United States House of Representatives. On June 4, 2024, Biden signed
Executive Order 14123, temporarily shutting down asylum requests and rendering any migrants who crossed the border illegally or without explicit authorization ineligible for asylum, and allowing the removal of migrants who do not have a credible reason for requesting asylum. The order shut down the border if illegal crossings reached an average of 2,500 migrants a day in a given week. The order went into effect immediately after being signed due to the threshold of average daily encounters reaching 2,500 people being exceeded. As part of the new action, the Biden administration announced the closure of the South Texas Family Residential Center, the largest immigrant detention center in the United States. The primary reason cited for this decision was the high cost of operating the facility. By the end of June 2024, illegal crossings reached a three-year low following four consecutive monthly drops, which senior U.S. officials attributed to increased enforcement between the United States and Mexico and the weather, as well as the effects of Biden's executive order. Daily apprehensions fell to 2,000 from May's 3,800. By July 2024, border arrests dropped 33% to a 46-month low after it had previously dropped by 55% in June, the lowest level since September 2020. On July 25, 2024, the
United States House of Representatives voted 220–196 to pass another resolution condemning the Biden-Harris administration for its handling of the U.S. southern border. Six Democrats voted with all Republicans in the House to pass the resolution. On September 28, 2024, ICE released figures showing that 435,719 convicted criminals were illegally living in the United States outside of ICE detention, including 62,231 who had been convicted of assault, 15,811 of
sexual assault, and 56,533 of
drug possession. 226,847 additional illegal residents were facing criminal charges. In a letter to Republican congressman
Tony Gonzales, ICE blamed the high figures on local prosecutors refusing to comply with its detainer requests, which ask police to hold migrants in custody to give ICE time to receive them. In a statement to
NBC News, the
Department of Homeland Security noted that "the data in this letter is being misinterpreted. The data goes back decades; it includes people who entered the country over the past 40 years or more, the vast majority of whose custody determination was made long before this administration. It also includes many who are under the jurisdiction or currently incarcerated by federal, state, or local law enforcement partners." On December 19, 2024, ICE reported that deportations had surged to a 10-year high under the Biden administration, with 271,000 unauthorized immigrants deported in fiscal year 2024, surpassing the Trump-era high of 267,000 deportations in 2019. The numbers were noted to be the highest since the 316,000 deportations in 2014 during the Obama administration. ICE stated that increased deportations came from efforts to streamline the deportation process and diplomatic efforts with countries to take back more deportees. The numbers did not include removals and returns of migrants at the border, which had sharply increased following Biden's executive order in June.
Proposed legislation Republican proposals On May 3, 2023, the Republican-led House passed H.R. 2, or the "Secure the Border Act", which would drastically restrict the asylum process, require United States employers to verify that employees were not undocumented under penalty of prison, build a
border wall, defund
nonprofits that provide services to undocumented immigrants, and allow the DHS to close the border entirely if it determines doing so is necessary. The bill largely passed on a party-line basis, with no Democratic support, and all but two Republicans voting for it. On June 18, 2023, Senate Republicans unveiled a bill that would resume
border wall construction, increase pay for Border Patrol agents, reform the nation's asylum laws, crack down on humanitarian parole of illegal migrants, and deny asylum to migrants who come to the United States through safe third countries. They demanded that the reforms be attached to any foreign aid package funding
Ukraine. Democratic Senate Majority Leader
Chuck Schumer called the proposal partisan and "a total non-starter" and compared it to the H.R. 2 bill. The White House pointed out that it would do nothing to create a path for citizenship for
DREAMers.
2024 bipartisan border bill Following months of negotiations, on February 4, 2024, a bipartisan group of senators released a 370-page bill intended to sharply reduce incentives for migrants to attempt border crossings. The bill included a "border emergency" provision that would automatically require the border to be closed if border encounters reached an average of 5,000 per day over several days. Trump,
Speaker Mike Johnson, and other Republicans falsely claimed the bill allowed 5,000 illegal border crossings per day. The plan included a tighter asylum application and approval process with speedy removal of migrants who do not qualify, the hiring of thousands more border patrol and asylum officers and an increase in detention capacity. The bill also provided for thousands of work visas for migrant spouses of U.S. citizens awaiting immigrant visas, and 250,000 new visas over five years for people seeking to work in the U.S. or join family members. It aimed to provide a
pathway to citizenship for "Documented Dreamers", children who accompanied their parents on a work visa and who could lose their place in line for a
green card at age 21. President Biden supported the bill, while Speaker Johnson said days before its release that it would be "dead on arrival" in the Republican-controlled House. Shortly after the proposal was announced,
House majority leader Steve Scalise declared it would not be brought before the House for a vote. One negotiator, independent
Arizona Senator
Kyrsten Sinema, asserted the border would have been closed every day so far in early January 2024 if the bill had been law; Biden promised in January that he would immediately close the border if the bill was enacted. Lead Republican negotiator
James Lankford of Oklahoma, among the most conservative Republican Senators, attempted to defend the bill throughout the weeks leading to the vote. Trump, the leading Republican candidate for president in 2024, publicly and privately pressured Republicans during the Senate negotiations to oppose the proposal. The
National Border Patrol Council, a labor union representing some 18,000 border patrol officers, quickly endorsed the Senate bill. The union had endorsed Trump in 2020 and had been critical of Biden's policies. Senate Republicans swiftly turned against the bill upon its release, after Trump openly said he did not want Joe Biden to score a political win with the legislation. On February 7, 2024, Senate Republicans blocked the proposal in a floor vote. Lankford said on the floor before the vote that a "popular commentator" had told him a month earlier, "'If you try to move a bill that solves the border crisis during this presidential year, I will do whatever I can to destroy you, because I do not want you to solve this during the presidential election.'" Two days before the vote, Trump told a radio host, "This is a very bad bill for his career." Trump said at a rally days later, "We crushed crooked Joe Biden's disastrous open borders bill," while Biden said, "Every day between now and November, the American people are going to know that the only reason the border is not secure is Donald Trump and his
MAGA Republican friends."
Second Trump administration (2025–present) On January 20, 2025, the
National Emergency Concerning the Southern Border of the United States was reinstated by an executive order on the first day of the
second presidency of Donald Trump. He had also signed executive orders reviving several of his first policies from the first presidency, such as reconstructing the border wall, reinstating the "Remain in Mexico" policy, and more. Additionally, he had set new policies to address the fentanyl crisis, and predominantly designating cartels as
Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Monthly figures for apprehensions on the US-Mexico border showed a precipitous year-on-year decrease in excess of 90% to 8,300, 7,200, and 8,400 for February, March, and April 2025, respectively, compared with the corresponding months in 2024. Historically, no full year has averaged below 9,000 apprehensions per month since the late 1960s. The drop in apprehensions has been attributed to the increased militarization of the US-Mexico border and domestic deportation efforts. ==See also==