CBP: Southern Border Arrests in June Reach Lowest Number Since January 2021

Customs and Border Patrol officers arrive with a vehicle after a group of illegal immigrants walked from Mexico into the United States at Jacumba Hot Springs, Calif., on June 5, 2024. Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

The number of illegal immigrants arrested at the U.S. southern border fell by nearly 30 percent in June, reaching the lowest monthly total since January 2021, according to figures released this week.

Arrests totaled 83,536 illegal immigrants in June, down from 117,901 in May, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced in a June 15 statement.

The agency attributed the decline to President Joe Biden’s order announced on June 4 that halts asylum requests at the southern border once the average daily number of illegal immigrant arrests exceeds 2,500 for seven days.

“Recent border security measures have made a meaningful impact on our ability to impose consequences for those crossing unlawfully, leading to a decline of 29 percent in U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions from May to June,” Troy Miller, acting CBP commissioner, said in a statement.

President Biden issued the proclamation as his administration had been dealing with historic levels of illegal immigrant encounters at the U.S.–Mexico border, while Americans rank border security as one of the country’s top concerns.

The order is a proclamation under Immigration and Nationality Act sections 212(f) and 215(a) and prohibits immigrants who cross the southern border unlawfully from receiving asylum when, as Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a June statement, “high levels of encounters at the southern border exceed our ability to deliver timely consequences.”

This is the same legal rationale former President Donald Trump used to take some of his toughest executive actions to address border security during his term.

Meanwhile, Mr. Miller also said the seven-day average of border-crossing encounters has decreased by more than 50 percent in the past six weeks to below 1,900 per day.

“We are continuing to work with international partners to go after transnational criminal organizations that traffic in chaos and prioritize profit over human lives,” he said.

Since the executive action went into effect on June 5, the Department of Homeland Security has “removed or returned more than 70,000 individuals to more than 170 countries, including by operating more than 150 international repatriation flights,” according to the CBP.

The border agency noted that the total number of removals and returns over the past year is the highest of any year since 2010.

Decline in Illegal Border Crossings

Arrests have fallen by more than half in recent months after reaching an all-time high of 249,785 in December.

Border officials said the agency has registered sharp declines across various nationalities, including Mexicans as well as Chinese people, who generally fly to Ecuador and travel to the U.S. border over land.

San Diego was the busiest of the Border Patrol’s nine sectors bordering Mexico by number of arrests, followed by Tucson, Arizona.

In addition, more than 41,800 immigrants were processed through an online appointment app called CBP One in June. The agency said more than 680,500 immigrants have successfully scheduled appointments since the app was introduced in January 2023.

“The top nationalities processed subsequent to arrival for their appointment are Venezuelan, Cuban, and Haitian,” the border agency stated.

Meanwhile, nearly 500,000 migrants from four countries have been allowed entry into the country under the Biden administration’s Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela CHNV parole program from October 2022 through June 2024, according to the CBP.

The agency said they include 104,130 Cubans, 194,027 Haitians, 86,101 Nicaraguans, and 110,541 Venezuelans.

The parole program was set in motion for Venezuelans by President Biden in October 2022. It was intended to help ease the number of illegal border crossings by flying people from certain countries directly to the United States. It was expanded in January 2023 to include nationals from Cuba, Haiti, and Nicaragua.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

From NTD News