More than 8M migrants will soon be living in the US — a 167% increase in 5 years

The population of migrants living within the US will surge to 8 million by the end of September — a dramatic 167% increase over five years driven by President Biden’s handling of the border crisis, according to government data.

At the end of fiscal year 2023 on Sept. 30, more than 6 million asylum seekers and other migrants were listed on what is known as the “non-detained docket” — a court docket that consists of cases involving noncitizens who have been temporarily released from ICE custody.

The Biden Administration anticipates that number will swell to 8 million by Oct. 1, according to Department of Homeland Security documents sent to Congress and obtained by Axios.

A quarter of the migrants caught in the backlog limbo — an estimated 2 million people — are those who have already been slated for deportation by a judge, as well as suspects facing criminal charges.

Because of the way the immigration system works, even after a judge has issued a ruling a migrant must be deported, they are able to appeal and challenge the deportation order. While that takes place, the deportation is put on hold, according to the legal help website nolo.com.

Only when another ruling is issued does the order of removal become final and ICE can apprehend the migrant, place them in custody and remove them from the US. 

Others are waiting to receive decisions on their asylum applications – a process which typically take years due to the huge backlog within the immigration court system, currently over three million cases.

Those tallies also do not include an estimated additional 1.8 million “gotaways” — migrants who were observed but evaded capture by the Border Patrol — since Biden took office in January 2021.

In the fiscal year 2023 alone, over 600,000 people illegally crossed the border into the US without being apprehended, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas confirmed in October.

In February nearly 190,000 people crossed the southern border – a spike of 30,000 compared to the same time last year, reported NewsNation journalist Ali Bradley, citing DHS sources.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has been on the front lines of dealing with the crisis, said in a “60 Minutes” interview on Sunday that Biden has lost control of the southern border — and the only solution is to elect a new president. 

“It ends very simply, that’s with a president of the United States who will actually fulfill their oath of office to enforce the laws of the United States of America, that means denying illegal entry into the country,” he said.

Abbott, a Republican, warned that the US was in “imminent danger” from what he has been defiantly calling an “invasion” of “known and unknown terrorists who cross every day.”

Between December 1 and 31, more than 302,000 migrants attempted to enter the US illegally, Custom and Border Patrol sources told Fox News Digital.

This marks the highest ever number of migrant encounters for a single month — and the first time the total surpassed 300,000. 

Last week, a federal judge blocked a new Texas law allowing state police to arrest illegal migrants from going into effect — ruling that it interferes with the federal government’s powers under the US Constitution to enforce immigration laws and the ability of migrants to apply for asylum.

The judge, David A. Ezra, also rejected Texas’ claim that the surging number of migrants amounts to an “invasion.”

“Even accepting that some small number of immigrants do traffic drugs or have cartel affiliations, Texas cannot genuinely maintain that noncitizens crossing the border are an organized military force aimed at conquest or plunder,” Ezra’s ruling read.

Abbott responded to the decision by insisting that his state has the constitutional right to defend itself because of “President Biden’s ongoing failure to fulfill his duty.” 

The migrant crisis has also been acutely felt on the northern border with Canada, which recorded more than 189,000 encounters in the previous fiscal year.

In the first four months of the new fiscal year that began in October, the northern Border Patrol sector has doubled the number of apprehensions made during the same period in the fiscal year 2023, Chief Patrol Agent Robert Garcia, with Border Patrol Swanton Sector, wrote on X.