by Kaylee Greenlee
Border officials encountered the third-highest number of migrants at the southern border on record, reaching more than 1.7 million apprehensions, according to Customs and Border Protection data.
Border officials reported 192,000 encounters with migrants attempting to illegally enter the U.S. through the southwest border in September, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data. A record high of more than 213,500 migrants were apprehended in July and another 209,800 were encountered in August.
“CBP encounters along the Southwest border declined in September from the prior month, and a majority of noncitizens encountered were expelled under Title 42,” Acting CBP Commissioner Troy Miller said in a statement. “The men and women of CBP continued to rise admirably to the challenge, despite the strain associated with operating during a global pandemic that has claimed far too many lives among our frontline personnel.”
Migrants make their way to a Border Patrol transport vehicle after illegally entering the U.S. near La Joya, Texas, on August 7, 2021. (Kaylee Greenlee – Daily Caller News Foundation)
Many migrants were rapidly expelled under a Trump-era public health order leading to several people attempting to cross the border multiple times, according to CBP. Around 50% of all encounters were expelled under the public health order, Title 42, while close to 89,200 others were processed for removal under Title 8.
“No doubt the Biden administration will try to spin these still sky-high numbers as some sort of win, but don’t be fooled,” Heritage Foundation visiting fellow and former acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan said in a statement. “These 192,000 apprehensions are still more than 40,000 higher than the highest monthly total during the 2019 crisis, a crisis that then-President Trump quickly and successfully moved to solve.”
“More importantly, however, official apprehensions dropped slightly while the number of got-aways—those who evade apprehension and enter the country after escaping law enforcement—increased from August,” Morgan added. Got-away’s are migrants who evade apprehension when illegally entering the U.S. and data tracking them is not publicly available, according to CBP.
Border officials reported 142,710 unique encounters at the border in September, referring to specific individuals rather than overall interactions with migrants, according to CBP. Officials encountered more than 113,000 single adults in September, up from 103,900 in August, and over half of them were expelled under Title 42.
Fewer family units and unaccompanied migrant minors were encountered in September, according to CBP data. The number of migrant kids in CBP custody on a daily average also decreased from 1,435 in August to 770 in September.
CBP did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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Kaylee Greenlee is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
