Scarborough takes aim at Trump, ends up admitting Biden let in 'so many' migrants

WASHINGTON,DC: MSNBC host Joe Scarborough appeared to accidentally make one of the strongest arguments against the Biden administration’s immigration record while attempting to criticize President Donald Trump.

During a discussion about Trump’s handling of the southern border on MS NOW Thursday, August 13, Scarborough acknowledged that Joe Biden’s administration was “letting in so many illegal immigrants”, a remarkable admission from a prominent Trump critic from liberal media.

Scarborough admits Biden’s border crisis

Scarborough was arguing that Trump and Republicans should have done a better job politically capitalizing on the dramatic decline in illegal border crossings.

“They should know when to take the victory. They could have been campaigning on closed southern border this whole time!” Scarborough said.

He then turned to the question of deportation numbers, initially suggesting that Trump would not achieve the same numbers associated with the Biden administration.

“You’re never going to get the deportation numbers that Joe Biden had, right?” Scarborough said. But what came next effectively undercut the argument.

“You’re not going to get those numbers because Joe Biden and his administration were letting in so many illegal immigrants. It was very easy to sweep up 5,000 right on the border and send them back.”

In trying to explain why Trump could not replicate Biden-era numbers, Scarborough inadvertently acknowledged the central reality Republicans have repeatedly pointed to: the Biden administration presided over an enormous flow of migrants arriving at the southern border.

Numbers prove shocking contrast

ICE recorded more than 271,000 removals in fiscal year 2024, Biden’s final full fiscal year in office. 

ICE recorded over 319,000 repatriations in fiscal year 2025, Trump’s first fiscal year after returning to the White House.

The significance of Scarborough’s statement is therefore not that Biden necessarily deported more people overall. His point was about volume.

When millions of migrants were arriving at the southern border during the Biden years, immigration authorities had a huge number of people to apprehend, process and in some circumstances, return.

Scarborough himself essentially acknowledged that dynamic when he said it was easy to “sweep up 5,000 right on the border and send them back.”

Trump campaigned on restoring control of the southern border, and his administration has made the reduction of illegal crossings a central measure of its immigration policy.

The dramatic decline in border encounters means there are now far fewer newly arriving migrants available for the kind of immediate border apprehensions and returns Scarborough was describing.

At the same time, Trump's administration has increased its focus on interior immigration enforcement, meaning arrests and removals are increasingly aimed at people already inside the United States rather than simply processing large numbers of new arrivals at the border.