President Joe Biden has brought about 1.35 million illegal aliens to the United States since taking office in late January 2021, analysis of the latest Census Bureau data suggests.

Analysis from the Center for Immigration Studies reveals that Biden’s expansive Catch and Release network coupled with his ending of critical policies like the “Remain in Mexico” program has brought about 1.35 million illegal aliens to the U.S. in just 16 months — a foreign population larger than Dallas, Texas.

Since taking office, as Breitbart News noted, Biden has driven the nation’s foreign-born population to an unprecedented 47 million by adding about two million illegal and legal immigrants in less than a year and a half.

Roughly two-thirds of that growth in the foreign-born population has been spurred by illegal immigration under Biden, which has hit record-breaking levels.

Center for Immigration Studies Director of Research Steven Camarota called the numbers “extraordinary,” explaining that “for the illegal immigrant population to grow, new arrivals do not simply have to exceed deaths and emigration, as is true for the total foreign-born, they also have to exceed legalizations, which are substantial every year.”

Camarota credited Biden’s “campaign promises that created the perception, well before he even took office, that he would curtail immigration enforcement” for the rapid rise in the nation’s illegal alien population:

Further, the administration’s decision to end the Migrant Protection Protocols (also called Remain in Mexico) for many asylum applicants, the scaling back of Title 42 expulsions, and more recently the decision to end it all together, coupled with the release of some three-quarters of a million illegal immigrants encountered at the border as well as 146,000 unaccompanied minors, almost certainly has encouraged even more illegal immigrants to arrive at the southern border in the hope they, too, will be released into the country. [Emphasis added]

The administration’s suspension of nearly all interior deportations and the resulting dramatic decline in immigration enforcement, including deportations, plus its refusal to automatically take custody of non-citizens released from jails and prisons have all likely made illegal immigrants feel safer, reducing emigration of those already here and encouraging new illegal immigration. Finally, efforts by some in Congress to pass a bill legalizing illegal immigrants and the White House’s continued support for such legislation cannot help but persuade some illegal immigrants in the country not to leave, as well as causing more to come. [Emphasis added]

Today, there are anywhere from 11 to 22 million illegal aliens living in the U.S. At his current rate, Biden is projected to add more than four million illegal aliens to the U.S. population by the end of 2024. Illegal immigration costs American taxpayers about $134 billion each year.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.