(José Niño, Headline USA) Former Border Patrol commander at large Gregory Bovino used a recent sitdown with Tucker Carlson to repeat a claim he has made for months, that the United States currently harbors 107 million people living here illegally.
Bovino, who oversaw border operations from October 2025 until his March 2026 resignation following fatal officer involved shootings during his deployment to Minneapolis, told Carlson directly, “Right now, in the US, I’ve got the number 107 million illegal aliens currently residing with impunity, one quarter of the total US population.”
Pressed further by Carlson on the figure, Bovino doubled down without hesitation. “A hundred and seven million? Hundred and seven million. One quarter of the population. We’ve got three hundred and thirty thousand, approximately, American citizens, add another 107 million onto that. I think you can look around in any state, any region, or any city in the United States if you’re just a regular American citizen and say you know what? There’s an awful lot of illegal aliens and foreigners in our country,” he said.
Carlson agreed with the sentiment, responding that the country “is a completely different country because it’s got a completely different population” and suggesting Americans face social pressure to avoid discussing it openly.
This isn’t a new talking point for Bovino. According to Raw Story reporting, he has floated numbers between 100 million and 108 million across several interviews since March, calling deportation of that population his “one and only priority.” Bovino has explained he built the figure by examining a 2006 financial document from the defunct Bear Stearns firm, then extrapolating outward using his own estimate of illegal crossings over a 20 year span based on what he says he personally observed during his career, as reported by Border Hawk.
Demographers and immigration researchers have poured cold water on the number cited by Bovino. Pew Research Center’s most current data places the illegal immigrant population at roughly 14 million within a total U.S. population of nearly 340 million. The Independent reports that even counting all immigrants, both legal and illegal, the Census places that total closer to 50 million, about 15 percent of the population.
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
