No, immigrants who entered the U.S. under Biden’s administration did not get 9 million jobs

Immigration as the cause of American job losses was a topic of discussion during former President Donald Trump’s Oct. 15 campaign rally in Atlanta. 

"The Biden-Harris administration also touts all this job growth, but they fail to mention the 10 million migrants they brought over here and the 9 million jobs they got," conservative commentator Michaelah Montgomery said during a speech at the rally, a clip of which was shared on Threads. 

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Montgomery did not respond to questions about her figures. Both numbers are inflated. 

We rated False previous claims that 10 million migrants entered the U.S. under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ administration.

That’s because the figure stems from data on nationwide encounters with U.S. Customs and Border Protection. But "encounters" refers to the number of stops by border officials, not the number of people entering the U.S.; the same person could be stopped multiple times. And many people are turned away.

The most recent data shows nearly 10.5 million encounters from February 2021, the first month Joe Biden was president, to September 2024, and more than 4.2 million of those encounters ended in people being deported from the country.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks employment for foreign-born and native-born people. That data shows employment among foreign-born people is up by 6.1 million since Biden took office in 2021, not 9 million.

Further, the 6.1 million figure refers to anyone born outside of the U.S., including people who have been in the U.S. for decades as green card holders or naturalized citizens. Migrants who entered the U.S. during Biden’s presidency represent a fraction of those included in the 6.1 million figure.

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JD Vance

stated on October 1, 2024 in a debate

Says immigrants with temporary protections in Springfield, Ohio, are “illegal immigrants.”

By contrast, native-born employment is up by 7.6 million since Biden became president.

Finally, the claim’s phrasing distorts reality in other ways. The Biden-Harris administration did not "bring" any of these migrants to the U.S.; they came on their own.

The claim that the Biden-Harris administration brought 10 million migrants to the U.S., and they got 9 million jobs is inaccurate. We rate it False.

PolitiFact Staff Writer Maria Ramirez Uribe contributed to this report.