The Biden border crisis significantly worsened during the month of September, the last month of Fiscal Year 2022. According to the Department of Homeland Security, 227,547 illegal aliens were encountered at the border or America’s ports of entry.
During the month of August, the U.S. surpassed 2,000,000 illegal alien encounters at the border and ports of entry for the first time in history, including September’s numbers; there were a total of 2,378,944 illegal alien encounters in FY2022.
U.S. Border Patrol apprehended 207,597 aliens at the southern border in September, representing a 14.2% increase compared to August (181,774). The Office of Field Operations encountered 19,950 aliens at U.S. ports of entry, a 10.6% decrease compared to the previous month (22,313). With Border Patrol and OFO combined, total alien encounters increased by 11.5% compared to August.
DHS also reported a significant increase in methamphetamine and heroin seizures but a slight decrease in fentanyl seizures in September compared to the previous month.
September marked the seventh straight month where alien encounters surpassed 200,000. For context, September 2021 saw 192,001 alien encounters, and September 2019 (during the last significant border surge) saw just 52,546 encounters.
Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Chris Magnus admitted that border numbers had skyrocketed between August and September but lauded the fact that the number of Venezuelans who crossed the border had decreased.
While failing regimes in Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua continued to drive a new wave of migration across the Western Hemisphere, the number of Venezuelans arriving at the southern border decreased sharply nearly every day since we launched additional joint actions with Mexico to reduce irregular migration and create a more fair, orderly and safe process for people fleeing the humanitarian and economic crisis in their country.
Magnus concluded:
CBP and DHS will continue to work with our partners in the region to address the root causes of migration, expand legal pathways, facilitate removals, and take thousands of smugglers off the streets. No matter what smugglers say, those who do not have a legal basis to remain in the country will be removed and people should not make the dangerous journey.
Despite Magnus’s statement, “Border Patrol apprehended a record 20 terrorism suspects in September, bringing the total for fiscal 2022 to nearly 100 (98),” reports The Washington Times.
The Washington Times adds,
CBP reported seizing 14,700 pounds of fentanyl, the deadly synthetic opioid that has sent overdose death rates soaring. That’s up from 11,200 pounds the previous year and 4,800 pounds in 2020, the final year under President Trump.
The Border Patrol said it caught 751 known or suspected gang members over the past year — more than in 2020 and 2021 combined. More than 300 of those were tied to MS-13, the brutally violent gang that stretches from Central America to the U.S.
The Border Patrol also nabbed 12,028 convicted criminal migrants over the past year, up from 10,763 in 2021 and 2,438 in 2020.
Like the terrorist suspect numbers, agents say, when more are caught, more are getting through.
In reaction to the most recent border numbers, Democratic Representative Henry Cuellar stated, “No, the border is not secure. When you had 1.7 million individuals last year, and now another 2.7 [million], that’s over 4.5 million individuals encountered at the border. Plus, if you add the getaways (~600,000), that’s going to be over 5 million individuals in just two years.”
CBP did not report the total number of aliens that were encountered and then released into the nation’s interior. However, according to The Washington Times, “based on partial data the agency submitted in a court case earlier this year, it is hundreds of thousands and could reach 1 million.”
You can read the CBP September release here.
To see an interactive graph charting Southwest Border encounters, please click here.
