The number of migrants apprehended between ports of entry on the southern border in September was lower than in any month since August 2020, according to new data released by Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Figures released Tuesday show Border Patrol encountered 53,858 people crossing the border illegally in September, matching similar numbers released in July and August and the highest number in December. This was a decrease from 249,740 people.
The overall number of encounters, which includes Border Patrol arrests and CBP encounters with migrants at official ports of entry, remained flat at 101,790 in September, the first full month of President Biden's inauguration in 2021. This is the lowest number of publications since February 2017, when 101,099 were published.
“Data released today by U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows that since the President announced new executive actions to secure the border on June 4, illegal border crossings have decreased by more than 55%, over the past four “This is the lowest level in a year. Encounter rates between ports of entry are down compared to the last months of the previous administration,” said White House Press Secretary Angelo Fernández Hernández.
The distinction between CBP and Border Patrol encounters is important. Because CBP encounters also include non-visa aliens who have been granted appointments to seek parole or asylum through official U.S. government channels, such as the CBP One app.
Border Patrol encounters include many asylum seekers and parolees, but also those who choose to cross the border illegally before turning themselves in to U.S. authorities.
The effectiveness of the Biden administration's parole program is clear in CBP statistics.
The Border Patrol reported that the Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan (CHNV) nationals encountered in September were from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela (CHNV), four of the most politically and economically troubled countries in the Western Hemisphere. (CHNV) had just 1,003 citizens, the lowest since May 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic was at its height. , down from a low of 84,208 in December 2023.
In 2022, the Biden administration launched the CHNV program, which opens a legal path for citizens of these countries to enter the United States, to stop them from showing up at the border without permission.
CBP's Field Operations Office, which manages official ports of entry, reported 27,737 encounters with CHNV nationals last month, a number that has remained stable for about a year since the program took hold.
The administration reported earlier this month that it would not renew the legal status of many CHNV parolees, instead encouraging them to seek extensions of status through other programs, including asylum, or possibly undergo deportation proceedings.
The third consecutive month of flat border numbers follows the Biden administration's unilateral enforcement of asylum restrictions at the border and Mexico's controversial crackdown on third-country nationals walking toward the U.S.-Mexico border. That's what it means.
The administration's asylum restrictions largely mirror those proposed in the failed bipartisan Senate border deal, which was criticized by the left as violating the United States' international asylum and refugee obligations. It was eventually abandoned by the right at the behest of former President Trump.
The failure of the deal became the centerpiece of Vice President Harris' pitch on border security and a cudgel against President Trump, who has politicized the issue.
“For months, the Biden-Harris administration worked with a bipartisan group of senators to craft a historic bipartisan border security agreement that would add thousands of frontline workers to the border. But Congressional Republicans twice voted against that deal, proving they are more secure.'' They are more interested in playing cynical politics than securing the border. The Biden-Harris administration has taken effective action, but Republican officials continue to do nothing,” Fernandez said.
Still, immigration activists criticized the Biden administration over the border numbers, pointing to a cumulative total of 2.9 million annual contacts in fiscal year 2024.
“The slight decline in encounters of illegal aliens attempting to enter this country is nothing to celebrate. The 2,901,142 encounters are still more than the population of Chicago and more than they were before the Biden-Harris administration took office. That's more than five times the 646,822 cases in the last full year of fiscal year 2020,” said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform. In a statement.
“Furthermore, the overall decline in encounters, especially along the southwest border, has more to do with policy decisions made in Mexico City than with policy decisions made in Washington, D.C.”
—Updated at 5:35 p.m.
