Border Patrol agents at the southern border arrested fewer illegal immigrants in January than any month in the nearly two years President Joe Biden has been in office.
Federal agents assigned to the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border apprehended 128,410 people last month, down 42% from 221,675 in December, according to new government data published Friday.
“The January monthly operational update clearly illustrates that new border enforcement measures are working, with the lowest level of Border Patrol encounters between Ports of Entry since February of 2021,” said acting U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Troy Miller in a statement. “Those trends have continued into February, with average encounters of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans plummeting.”
The January number is lower than every month since February 2021, when 97,643 people were arrested.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas claimed in late January that border arrests were expected to drop significantly following the Biden administration’s expansion of a parole program that had prompted immigrants from four countries to apply for admission through ports of entry rather than cross illegally between the ports.
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Across the entire southern border, roughly 41% of immigrants were returned south of the border under pandemic policy Title 42, which allowed border officials to immediately expel illegal crossers rather than take people into custody.
Another 27,864 immigrants attempted to cross at ports of entry but lacked the proper immigration documents for admission, for a total of roughly 156,000 immigrants encountered at the southern border.
Roughly 38,000 people arrived as part of a family, cutting in half the 77,000 number in December. More than 9,300 children arrived at the border without an adult family member.
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In total, 5.4 million immigrants have tried to get into the United States illegally between Feb. 1, 2021, and Jan. 30, 2023 — more than any other period in the Border Patrol’s 98 years or the Obama administration’s eight years in office.
