More encounters were recorded on the United States’ southern border in the 2023 fiscal year than any other since the government began collecting those records in 1960, shocking new data showed.
September alone also broke monthly records on the border, with 269,735 apprehensions recorded, according to new figures released by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
The record had previously been set in December 2022, which saw 252,315 people try to cross into the US. The third highest month recorded was August this year with 232,963 people.
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More than 2.3 million people tried to enter the US in the 2022 fiscal year, while the year before that the record was set at over 1.7 million.
In 2020, the fiscal year before President Biden took office, there were just 458,088.
That figure does not include “gotaways” — those who are known to have made the crossing into the US but not been apprehended, either those who had been seen on camera but not been apprehended to those who had been able to get away from border patrol officers.
Earlier this month, CBP chief Jason Owens warned that with border agents overwhelmed by having to process migrants handing themselves in legally at points of entry on the southern border, an average of 1,125 gotaways were slipping into the country daily. Fox news reported on Monday there were 23,000 “known gotaways” since Oct. 1.
“These are individuals whose identities & purpose we do not know. That is why you need every Border Patrol agent to be in the field and on patrol,” he wrote on X.
CBP said it has repatriated more than 250,000 people who were apprehended at the border between May and September.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does not readily release data on deportation numbers, but they recently claimed between June and August they were sending an average of 83,000 people back to their home country, or to Mexico in accordance with a deal to deport migrants to home nations the US does not have diplomatic ties with.
The majority of September’s apprehensions were of people who came from Venezuela, totaling 54,833 arrests, a separate report showed.
Mexican migrants were the next most encountered, with 39,733 apprehensions recorded, followed by Guatemalans, Hondurans, and Colombians.
President Biden has guaranteed temporary protected legal status and work permits for an estimated 500,000 Venezuelans who arrived in the US before July 31. The administration also continues to let up to 43,000 people a month into the country through the CBP One app.
Diplomatic relations with Venezuela have recently been re-established, allowing the US to start flying people back to the country. Last week the first flight was sent with 130 Venezuelan migrants aboard.
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Other see it differently with Rep. Mark Green of Tennessee, chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, laying the blame directly on Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and the current administration.
“This fiscal year may have ended, but the historic crisis at our Southwest border sparked by Mayorkas’ policies rages on,” he said.
* Original Article:
https://nypost.com/2023/10/23/news/southern-border-in-2023-were-highest-ever-since-government-started-keeping-records-in-1960/amp/
