The number of illegal immigrants arrested while attempting to enter the United States from Mexico dropped last month to the lowest level since the Trump administration, a big win for President Joe Biden four months ahead of the election, the Washington Examiner has learned.
Across the 2,000-mile southern border, just under 84,000 illegal immigrants were arrested in June, according to a copy of federal data leaked to the Washington Examiner, which would be the lowest figure since former President Donald Trump left office in January 2021.
Of the arrests, more than 49,000 people were single adults and another 27,000 crossed with a family member. The remaining roughly 6,000 were unaccompanied children.
The number will fluctuate as the number of people in custody, pending release, and removals are counted. Monthly figures are typically not publicly released until halfway through the next month.
The drop in June marks the fourth consecutive month that arrests have declined as the Biden administration publicly and privately pressured its Mexican counterparts to do more to stop migrants from traveling through the country to get to the U.S. The June figure was reported by CBS News on Monday.
When Trump departed, the number of monthly apprehensions hung between 70,000 and 79,000 per month.
Biden’s ascendance to the Oval Office marked a sharp increase in the number of immigrants who attempted to get into the country without permission.
Illegal immigrant arrests ticked up within weeks of Biden’s executive orders that halted border wall construction, canceled all pending deportations for 100 days, and stopped requirements that asylum-seekers remain in Mexico, among other actions.
Arrests hung between an average of 30,000 and 50,000 people intercepted each month in the decade leading up to 2021, but in the three years and four months of the Biden administration, they have largely stayed between 120,000 and 250,000 arrests per month.
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The number of arrestees does not include “getaways,” the Border Patrol term for illegal immigrants who are observed on camera or through ground sensors entering the country but are unable to be tracked down and arrested.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the federal agency that oversees the Border Patrol, did not provide additional comment.
