CBP: 2024, the second fiscal year with most border encounters

The fiscal year 2024 concluded as the second highest on record for encounters at the border, despite a shift in immigration policy during the final months of the Biden-Harris Administration. The administration began to enforce existing legislation, which significantly reduced the number of illegal entries into the country. Republicans argue that this could have been implemented from the start of his term, accusing the president and the border czarina of 'intentionally' provoking an invasion of undocumented immigrants.

Only 2023 recorded more encounters

Between the beginning of October 2023 and the end of September 2024, Customs and Border Protection recorded 2.901,142 apprehensions across all national boundaries, a figure surpassed only by the 3,201,144 in fiscal year 2023.

The behavior of the major gateways to the country has been markedly different. While encounters on the border with Mexico have dropped considerably to 2,135,005, the third highest record ever, behind 2023 (2.475,669) and 2022 (2,378,944). However, the record number of apprehensions was again broken at the Canadian border, with 198,929, 9,527 more than in 2023.

April, slight beginning of reduction in illegal immigrant flow

It is worth noting a notable change in the number of entries starting in April, when, for the first time since Czarina Kamala Harris took responsibility for the border, the number of entries in the south was slightly lower than in previous years. A trend that has been intensifying ever since. In the north it took waiting until July 2024 for the flow to begin to reduce.

In fact, the first quarter data of last fiscal year were the worst ever, with December 2023 breaking the absolute monthly record in both the border aggregate (370.883) and in the southern (301,981).

The encounters decreased when Biden-Harris used the tools at their disposal

From the Agency, it wanted to emphasize that, "Following the entry into force of the Presidential Proclamation of June 5 on Border Security and the accompanying Interim Final Rule, there has been a significant and continuing decline in illegal border crossings, including a more than 55% decline in encounters between ports of entry along the southwest border."

In other words, encounters began to drop when the Biden-Harris Administration decided to use the tools it had at its fingertips from the first minute of its tenure and decided not to employ until it felt it needed to for partisan interests ahead of the November elections.