Illegal migration at the southern border declined in October by nearly 15%, the first significant drop since President Joe Biden took office in January.
Data released Monday evening by Customs and Border Protection show that federal law enforcement officials stopped 164,303 noncitizens along the 2,000-mile southern border as they attempted to sneak in between ports of entry or were denied admission at inspection booths. The majority tried to get across the border in areas without a border wall.
“We continue to work diligently to identify and dismantle transnational criminal organizations that smuggle contraband and migrants into the U.S. October marks the third straight month of declining unauthorized migrant encounters along the Southwest border — with particularly sharp drops in families and unaccompanied children — and CBP’s workforce continues to work with partners across the federal government and throughout the hemisphere to disrupt the smugglers intent on exploiting vulnerable migrants for profit,” CBP acting Commissioner Troy Miller said in a statement.
The October number is down from 192,001 in September and 209,840 in August but far higher than the 71,929 people encountered in October 2020. The number of people caught attempting to illegally enter the United States peaked under the Biden administration at 213,593 in July, which was the highest in 21 years.
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The surge of migrants traveling from countries across South America, Central America, and Mexico comes amid worsening conditions globally amid the coronavirus pandemic and following changes that Biden made to immigration policies. The number of illegal crossings at the border has climbed for the past 17 months after dropping dramatically at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020.
Of the 164,303 people encountered at the border last month, 105,583 were single adults, 42,726 were with a family member, and 12,807 were children without an adult guardian. Of all apprehended illegally crossing in October, 29% had been caught trying at least one time in the past 12 months — twice the recidivism rate seen before the coronavirus pandemic.
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CBP pointed to its talks with Mexico and Colombia as having affected the number of migrants who chose to travel to the U.S. As of late October, more people from Venezuela were in Border Patrol custody than any other nationality, a phenomenon that indicates how many Venezuelans are fleeing the country’s chaotic conditions.
