The number of apprehensions of migrants illegally crossing the southwest border with Mexico between ports of entry has hit its lowest level under the Biden administration. The sharp decline in migrant arrests is the result of a series of election-year ploys to distract voters from the failed border security policies of the past three and a half years.
Border Patrol agents apprehended 83,536 migrants who crossed the U.S. southern border illegally in June, according to the Southwest Land Border Patrol Report released this week by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The report noted that the number of encounters with migrants was the lowest since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021.
In February 2021, President Biden’s first month in office, the number of encounters with migrants jumped to 97,643, up from 75,316 in January. The numbers continued to rise for the next three years, peaking at nearly 250,000 in December 2023.
“Biden abdicated on day one of his presidency,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told delegates gathered at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday. “He watered down President Trump’s policies with disastrous results.”
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Abbott also told convention attendees and a national television audience that the Biden administration’s border crisis has led to more than 11 million immigrants entering the United States illegally.
With migrant apprehensions peaking at nearly a quarter-million in December 2023, the Biden administration negotiated a deal with Mexico that requires Mexico to reduce the number of migrants reaching the U.S. southern border, Breitbart Texas’ Randy Clark reported.
“Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s moves to crack down on migrants may have less to do with securing the border and more to ensure an electoral victory for U.S. President Joe Biden and his own Morena party,” Clark wrote earlier this year. “The temporary suspension of migration, designed to ensure a Democratic victory in the U.S. in November and a victory for AMLO’s Morena candidate, Claudia Sheinbaum, in June, could keep the border open for years to come.” Sheinbaum went on to win the election and become Mexican president.
The Mexican government’s temporary efforts led to a roughly 50 percent drop in migrant arrests the following month, Breitbart Texas reported.Following President Joe Biden’s declining approval ratings on immigration and border security and a meeting between the Mexican president and two members of the Biden administration’s Cabinet, the Mexican government’s measures reduced migrant arrests by more than 125,000 in January.
Breitbart Texas reached out to lawmakers and House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office for information about any agreements between Mexico and the U.S. to reduce migrant crossings. One lawmaker responded that it was unclear whether the Biden administration would make such agreements public. There appear to be no reports disclosing what the U.S. has agreed to in return for increased Mexican enforcement.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection official told Breitbart Texas that Mexico’s efforts are not a long-term solution to the problem. “They are only slowing down migrants’ arrival at the U.S. border,” the source said. “They are being pushed further south, slowing efforts to achieve the goal of them seeking asylum in the U.S.”
President Biden signed an executive order on June 4 limiting contacts with migrants to 2,500 per day, but the administration has yet to meet that goal, even as the number of contacts with migrants hit a record low of 83,000 under Biden’s administration.
In June, the San Diego, Tucson and El Paso Sectors each apprehended more than 10,000 immigrants, with San Diego having the most arrests with more than 26,000, followed by the Tucson Sector with more than 22,000 and the El Paso Sector with more than 14,500.
The arrest figure does not include the more than 1.1 million migrants the Biden administration has granted migrant parole under a program not authorized or funded by Congress, Breitbart News reported in June. The parole pipeline brings foreign nationals into the U.S. through the administration’s “CBP One” mobile app and “humanitarian parole,” Breitbart’s John Binder wrote.
The arrest figures also do not include the more than 194,000 people who have fled so far this year, Breitbart Texas reported.
Fugitive migrants are an estimate of the number of migrants who were observed crossing the border but not apprehended. Border Patrol agents who are in the field to make these observations detect a significant number of these migrants. Some migrants are observed crossing the border by cameras or other detection devices, but no agents are available to apprehend them. In addition, some migrants are part of a larger group, only a certain number of which are apprehended.
Bob Price Price is deputy editor and senior news contributor for Breitbart Texas Border Team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a reporter for Fox 26 Houston. What is your argument? Sunday Morning He also serves as chairman of the talk show. Blue Wonder Cancer Care Products.
