Nationwide encounters of illegal immigrants with Customs and Border Protection increased by over 300% since 2020, which was the last fiscal year on record by President Donald Trump's administration. This is reflected in the latest data from the Office of Customs and Border Protection (CBP). According to the report released by the agency, encounters of illegal immigrants in fiscal year 2022 were 2.7 million, the highest total since fiscal year 2020, when encounters stood at 646,000.
Of those numbers, 241,786 were the total encounters with the Office of Field Operations (OFO) and 405,036 were the total Border Patrol encounters in 2020. In the case of the year 2022, 551,930 was the total of the encounters with the OFO and 2,214,652 was the total of the encounters with the border patrol.
Meanwhile, nationwide meetings this year stand at 2.5 million, with two months still remaining in the fiscal year. In July of this year, CBP reported 245,286 encounters nationwide, up from 238,929 last July.
CBP defines domestic encounters as "the sum of CBP's encounters in all areas of responsibility, including the Northern Land Border, the Southwest Land Border, the Office of Field Operations (OFO), non-land border ports of entry (e.g. airports, seaports) and the USBP."
Despite the increase, the Biden administration is returning a smaller percentage of migrants crossing the border into Mexico. On average, about 1,000 immigrants a day have been sent back across the border into Mexico since Title 42 ended on May 11, compared with nearly 3,000 in April, according to NBC News estimates.
