The arrival of illegal immigrants broke all previous records during the 2023 fiscal year. According to official data published by the Customs and Border Protection Agency (CBP), more than three million people entered the country irregularly across all the country's borders. The flow of asylum seekers has also broken the highest records in both the south (2,475,669) and the north (189,402). The arrest of terrorist suspects also skyrocketed (169), reaching a figure higher than the sum of the previous six years.
Today, CBP released September 2023 statistics for its primary mission areas related to protecting the American people, safeguarding our borders, and enhancing the nation’s economic prosperity.
▪️ Press release: https://t.co/9UoMFopzXk
▪️ Stats: https://t.co/zaPvUr5BwR pic.twitter.com/2T9iTJyTVm— CBP (@CBP) October 21, 2023
More than three million illegal immigrants for the first time
The total number of entries broke the barrier of three million asylum seekers for the first time. The 3,201,144 illegals registered throughout this period exceeded by almost half a million, the number of people who crossed the border in 2022 (2,766,582), the highest record so far. Figures that far exceed experts' forecasts compared to previous years.
Absolute record of encounters with illegals on the Southern Border
The highest entry records on the Southern Border were also broken. Until now, the highest number was the 252,315 who arrived in the country through Mexico in February 2023, but in September it was close to 270,000 (269,735). Despite the fact that the first months after the suspension of Title 42 the flow decreased significantly - although in figures that continued to be notably high -, the encounters skyrocketed again in August and, especially in the last month of the fiscal year.
More encounters on the Northern Border in 2023 than in the previous six years combined
The Northern Border deserves special mention, whose numbers continue to skyrocket. In 2023, Nearly 80,000 more illegals crossed this border in 2023 than in 2022 (109,535), the highest figure so far. In fact, the sum of asylum seekers who were apprehended between 2020 and 2022 is lower than those who entered this year alone. And in 2022 there was the highest year-on-year increase (from 27,180 to 109,535, a difference of 82,355).
CBP demands more resources
The arrest of terrorism suspects also surged in the fiscal year that just closed. According to CBP statistics, during 2023, Border Patrol agents managed to arrest up to 172 people included in the list of known terrorists or suspected terrorists. This figure is supposed to be higher than the sum of those captured during the previous 6 years.
In a statement, CBP Acting Commissioner, Troy Miller, announced that the agency has increased resources and personnel invested in trying to stop the hemorrhaging and noted that it has requested more resources to be able to deal with the flood of illegals that continues to enter the country. He also mentioned another of the Border Patrol's great challenges, drug seizures, which continue to fall.
In response to high rates of encounters across the southwest border in September, CBP surged resources and personnel. We are continually engaging with domestic and foreign partners to address historic hemispheric migration, including large migrant groups traveling on freight trains, and to enforce consequences including by preparing for direct repatriations to Venezuela. CBP will continue to remain vigilant, making operational adjustments as necessary and enforcing consequences under U.S. immigration law. The supplemental funding request announced yesterday would provide critically needed additional resources including additional CBP agents and officers to support our essential missions: from border and migration management, to countering fentanyl and keeping dangerous drugs out of our communities.
