Why Mr. Biden waited so long to effectively seal the border has become one of the defining questions of his presidency.

I have posted the numbers before. There was a quirk in the data during the Biden administration. CBP switched from counting only illegals arrested, to counting "encounters", which included Title 42 expulsions. Title 42 expulsions are no longer included in the total. Adding the expulsions juiced the numbers, but there was still a distinct increase vs Trump 1 and Obama.

Tables at this link break out Title 8 apprehensions, which were included in totals before 2020, and are still included in totals now, and Title 42 expulsions, which were dropped from the total in 2023, for fiscal 2022. Including Title 42, added over a million people to the "encounters" total. But Title 8 apprehensions, alone, were far above where they had been during Obama or Trump 1.

cbp.gov - Title and title statistics

Steve