Since Joe Biden took office as president in January 2021, border authorities have encountered 267,000 unaccompanied minors, according to official data.

So far in the 2022 fiscal year, 140,186 minors have been apprehended at border crossings. This number could rise in the few days remaining until the end of the current fiscal year on September 30.

In the fiscal years 2018 and 2019, when then-President Trump was in the White House, there were only 10,000 interceptions of unaccompanied minors, according to CBP data.

Encounters with unaccompanied immigrants began to increase in January 2021, when 5,820 encounters were reported. By March 2021, that number more than tripled, with border officials reporting 18,870 apprehensions of minors. The month with the most arrests since Biden took office was July 2021, with 18,954.

Unprecedented figures

Border smugglers in some cases abandon children at crossings. A few months ago a four month old baby and an 18 month old were abandoned in Organ Pipe Cactus National Park in Arizona. The first was found crying and the second was face down and unconscious. Stories like these from the southern border are part of the reality that bring to light the unprecedented migration crisis.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported that 2,493,723 illegal immigrants were apprehended in the current fiscal year, from last October through August. Of that number, 2,150,244 were apprehended at the southern border. The large number of people fleeing communist regimes in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba are driving a new wave of immigration, CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus said in a statement.

The number of detainees in August 2022 was 157,921, an 2.2% increase compared to the previous month.