Last week, 17 GOP House members co-signed a letter authored by Chip Roy demanding Department of Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas release a report detailing the total number of illegal immigrants residing in the United States.
“The American people deserve an exact accounting of the number of illegal aliens residing in the country, especially if the federal government’s policies have caused that number to surge since the previous estimate,” read a portion of the letter.
Roy said in the letter that at least 6.5 million illegal aliens have entered the United States since President Biden took office.
“We request that DHS produce an updated report on the number of illegal aliens in the United States using data from January 2018 to the present,” Roy said in the letter.
A staff report from the House's Judiciary Committee reported in October 2023 that the Biden Administration removed 3.5 as many people per month than the Trump administration did following initial arrests.
Roy’s letter said that DHS’ data on immigration from 2021 differed from other reports.
“Since January 2021, the Southwest border crisis has reached heights not seen in recent history, and at least 4.7 million illegal aliens have been released into the interior under the Biden Administration’s policies. Therefore, we write to request an immediate update to the report using the most recent data available,” Roy said.
The letter requested ten items to be included in that report: 1. An updated estimate of the total illegal alien population residing in the U.S. since the last study was produced using data from January 2018 to the present. a) An explanation as to why previous DHS estimates, and any future estimate, of the illegal alien population residing in the U.S. differs from other publicly available estimates.
2. An updated number of aliens who evaded capture at the southern, northern, and coastal borders, also known as “gotaways,” including an estimate of unknown “gotaways” since January 2021. 3. The number of aliens who have overstayed their visas. 4. The number of aliens paroled and released into the country, both those encountered at a port of entry and between ports of entry. 5. The number of illegal aliens who are: a) TPS beneficiaries. b) Aliens enrolled in DED. c) Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients. 6. The total number of aliens who have been released into the interior of the U.S., including: a) Aliens released who received a Notice to Appear (NTA). b) Aliens released who received a Notice to Report (NTR). 7. The total number of illegal aliens removed from the United States. 8. The number of aliens ordered to be removed from the U.S. by an immigration judge but who remain in the United States or the number of aliens in the United States with final orders of removal. 9. The number of aliens ordered removed in absentia because they failed to appear for their immigration court hearing. 10. The number of aliens currently considered fugitives by ICE. Co-signers of the letter include Representatives Mary Miller (IL-15), Bob Good (VA-5), Nicole Malliotakis (NY-11), Daniel Webster (FL-11), Rich McCormick (GA6), Nancy Mace (SC-1), Keith Self (TX-3), Randy Weber (TX-14), Anthony D’Esposito (NY-4), Ralph Norman (SC-5), Dusty Johnson (SD-AL), Glenn Grothman (WI-6), Ben Cline (VA-6), Brian Babin (TX-36), Aaron Bean (FL4), Morgan Luttrell (TX8), and Michael Cloud (TX-27).
