Federal law enforcement at the border made more than a quarter of a million encounters with illegal immigrants in October, a new all-time record that blows past previous monthly records set during the Biden administration.
Customs and Border Protection officers and agents came across 277,464 immigrants who tried to get into the United States at land, air, and sea ports without permission, according to federal data released late Monday.
Approximately 159,000 were single adults, 59,000 were members of a family, and 12,000 were unaccompanied children.
The Biden administration has explained the rise from an average of 30,000 to 50,000 encounters per month in the 2010s as the result of repeat crossers.
The majority of people encountered — 230,678 — occurred on the southern border, and roughly 45,000 of that number had been previously caught trying to enter and turned away but tried to enter again. The nearly 190,000 encounters of individual people is still four times the number seen under the Obama and Trump administrations.
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Of the total from the southern border, 78,000 were sent back, and the large majority of the remaining 152,000 were released into the U.S., where they will face removal proceedings five to eight years down the road. Claiming asylum is not a requirement to be released into the country, and those released have until their hearings to request asylum.
CBP acting Commissioner Troy Miller touted the government’s success in choosing to turn away illegal immigrants from Venezuela as the reason for encounters from that country having dropped from nearly 34,000 encountered in September to 23,000 last month.
“We implemented a new process for Venezuelan nationals that has resulted in a dramatic reduction in the number of Venezuelan encounters at our border,” Miller wrote in a statement. “The new process has seen Venezuelan encounters drop from approximately 1,100 per day to about 300 per day by the end of October.”
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However, the number of Cuban and Nicaraguan immigrants coming across the border remains at all-time highs due to authoritarian governments that have prompted millions to flee to other Western Hemisphere countries.
