Lawmakers pressure Biden administration to unveil the true number of migrants living in U.S. that experts estimate is at least 22 MILLION

A group of 18 Republican lawmakers are demanding that President Joe Biden's administration release to the public how many illegal immigrants are living in the U.S.

Studies spanning back to 2018 claim that as many as 22 million people are living in the U.S. without legal status, but other more recent estimates from 2021 say the number is closer to 11 million.

But members of Congress want a more precise and accurate depiction of the percent of the population that are illegal immigrants and migrants without documented status.

Republican Reps. Chip Roy (Texas), Nancy Mace (S.C.), Bob Good (Va.), Dusty Johnson (S.D.), Nicole Malliotakis (N.Y.), Ralph Norman (VA.) and a dozen other lawmakers co-signed a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Republican lawmakers are demanding President Joe Biden's administration reveal how many illegal immigrants are living in the U.S. 

The latest estimates from U.S. government claims 11 million people in the U.S. are in the country illegally – but with the surging migrant crisis at the southern border, Republicans think the number is much higher

'[A]s of January 2018, 11.4 million illegal aliens resided in the U.S.,' the letter reads. '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.'

Besides wanting to know the total illegal immigration population, the letter also demands Mayorkas turn over data breaking down the undocumented migrants by category.

The lawmakers are looking for DHS to release the 'number of aliens who have overstayed their visas' and 'the number of aliens paroled and released into the country.'

Additionally, the group of Republicans want to understand what data DHS currently has on the number of 'gotaways' currently in the country. This refers to the amount of migrants who were able to avoid apprehension or evade detection when illegally coming into the U.S. 

A group of 18 Republican members of Congress signed a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas asking for the most recent data on illegal immigrants living in the U.S.

Pew Research estimates based on available data that as of 2021, there were 10.5 million unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. – making up about 3 percent of the total population and 22 percent of the foreign-born population.

But a paper from a researcher at Yale and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from years earlier – in 2018 – estimates the number is really around 22 million.

With the rise in illegal immigration since President Biden took office in January 2021, most critics claim there is no way that the population of illegal immigrants is under 20 million.