US-Mexico encounters fall as border activity slows while deportations rise, new data shows
Nov 23, 2024, 8:00 PM
(Edgar H. Clemente, Associated Press)
(Edgar H. Clemente, Associated Press)
SALT LAKE CITY — As President Joe Biden’s administration winds down, enforcement encounters — a measure of illicit activity at the U.S.-Mexico border — are down while deportations are up, according to new U.S. Customs and Border Protection figures.
The numbers suggest a dramatic turnaround in border activity since late last year and early this year, when surging apprehension and encounter figures sparked angry calls by many political leaders for tighter border security. The issue figured big in the U.S. presidential campaign, won by Republican Donald Trump, who promised a crackdown on immigrants here illegally and charged the Biden administration with not doing enough to stem illegal immigration.
According to the data released Tuesday, encounters along the U.S.-Mexico border in October — which includes apprehensions of immigrants who entered illegally or were deemed to be inadmissible — totaled just 106,344. That’s the fourth consecutive monthly figure under 108,000 and contrasts the high of 301,981 registered last December, when clamoring over illegal crossings reached a pitch. Moreover, the monthly figures since June have been the lowest since October 2022 and the total for fiscal year 2024, which ended in September, totaled 2.14 million, lower than 2.48 million in 2023 and 2.38 million in 2022.
Customs and Border Protection agents’ “enhanced enforcement efforts are continuing to keep border encounters low, and we continue to take unprecedented measures to dismantle and disrupt the operations of transnational criminal organizations,” Troy Miller, acting commissioner of the office, said in a statement. He singled out efforts to stop organizations trafficking fentanyl and other illicit drugs “to keep our communities safe.”
The Customs and Border Protection statement referenced the June 4 executive order enacted by Biden, which restricted the number of permissible asylum requests at the U.S.-Mexico border and augmented other enforcement mechanisms. Asylum policy changes enacted earlier in Biden’s term have been a particular point of contention for his critics, who have decried the entry of some making asylum claims.
Aside from reducing border activity, the changes “have also led to an increase in the percentage of migrants removed from the United States and a decrease in the number of people released pending their removal proceedings,” said the statement. Since the June changes, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security “has doubled the percentage of noncitizens processed for expedited removal, and the number of individuals released by U.S. Border Patrol pending immigration court proceedings is down 67%.”
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