The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) disclosed data on Friday indicating a significant decrease in border apprehensions, marking the lowest figures in almost four years for southwest border encounters. According to the CBP, this decline of 34% from June to July is attributed to a proclamation by the President made in June. Troy Miller, a high-ranking CBP official, credited recent policies under the Biden-Harris administration for this decrease, stating that it resulted in the fewest southwest border encounters in over three years.
However, the numbers tell a broader story. In July, with two months left in the fiscal year ending September 30, more than 10.5 million individuals were apprehended for illegal border crossing attempts. This figure does not include an additional 2 million “gotaways,” individuals who successfully entered illegally without being caught, pushing the total over 12.5 million. Such a number surpasses the population of 45 U.S. states, suggesting that if this group were a state, it would rank as the sixth-largest by population, ahead of Illinois. This comparison has escalated rapidly from 43 states in March and 23 states in June 2022, according to The Center Square’s analysis.
No other U.S. presidential administration has reported numbers remotely close to 12.5 million within a single term. The total apprehensions of illegal border crossers since the fiscal year 2021 reached 10,522,029, not counting the two million gotaways. The state of Illinois, for context, has a population estimated at 12,516,863.
The rise in illegal border crossers has been consistent since President Joe Biden’s tenure began in early 2021, as tracked by The Center Square. Notably, the official CBP data does not account for those deemed “inadmissible” yet released into the U.S. through modes like the CBP One phone app or through parole programs initiated by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, many of which were later deemed illegal by the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security and cited in the impeachment of Mayorkas in February.
This issue is further complicated by the introduction of parole programs for specific countries and the establishment of processing centers in Colombia and Guatemala, facilitating entry into the U.S. Despite efforts to characterize the situation differently, Rep. Mark Green, chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security, accuses the administration of misleading the public with a “massive shell game” and criticized the administration’s border policies. He remarked on the significant rise in total encounters at U.S. ports this fiscal year and mourned the irreversible harm done to families of Americans lost to crimes committed by foreign nationals released into the country.
Encounter records reveal that 2,597,784 illegal foreign nationals were apprehended this fiscal year, increasing from the previous years’ figures and highlighting a trend in single adult apprehensions. Additionally, there’s been a notable uptick in illegal border crossings at the northern border, setting records this administration that surpass any in recorded history.
