Biden-Harris Admin Caps Off Four Fiscal Years With Roughly 8.5 Million Southern Border Migrant Encounters

By Jason Hopkins, Daily Caller News Foundation | October 22, 2024

There were roughly 8.5 million migrant encounters along the U.S.-Mexico border during the four fiscal years of the Biden-Harris White House, bringing more clarity on the exact toll of the border crisis under the administration.

There were 101,790 migrant encounters at the southern border in September, the final month of fiscal year 2024, according to data released Tuesday by Customs and Border Protection (CBP). These figures include both migrants who crossed the southern border unlawfully and those who appeared at ports of entry. (RELATED: Hospitals Reporting Spike In Migrants Falling Off Border Wall, Needing Medical Attention)

There were roughly 2.1 million migrant encounters along the southern border in fiscal year 2024, the CBP data reveals. This final number puts the total figure of migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico during the Biden-Harris administration at roughly 8.5 million.

There were more than 1.5 million Border Patrol encounters between ports of entry — otherwise known as unlawful border crossings — in fiscal year 2024. The figures were a decrease from the roughly two million and 2.2 million unlawful border crossings seen at the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal years 2023 and 2022, respectively, according to the data.

CBP’s release of the September data is the latest border figure for the Biden-Harris administration, which oversaw an unprecedented border crisis during its time occupying the White House.

“You wouldn’t know it from the way President Biden, his ‘border czar,’ Vice President Harris, and their defenders in the media are talking about these numbers, but this was the second-worst year in terms of inadmissible alien encounters ever — only surpassed by the all-time record Biden and Harris set just last fiscal year,” House Homeland Committee Chairman Mark Green said Tuesday. “In terms of official encounters, this year was a disaster.” (RELATED: Illegal Migrant Released By New York For Attempted Murder Arrested Again On Charges Of Trafficking Minor)

“Every day, Americans are experiencing the consequences of the unchecked flow of inadmissible aliens into their communities,” Green continued. “We simply cannot go on like this as a country. These open-borders policies have devastated our safety, security, and sovereignty.”

The new data does not include the approximately 30,000 migrants flown into the country every month via a hotly debated parole program known as CHNV — which has brought in around half a million Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans into the U.S. since the launch of the program.

President Joe Biden in June issued an executive order that aimed to control the number of daily unlawful border crossings amid a peak in illegal border encounters and polls indicating voter dissatisfaction with his handling of the crisis. The outgoing president doubled down on the order in September by extending the number of days it would take at a certain threshold for it to be deactivated.

Despite these election year efforts, the Border Patrol union formally endorsed former President Donald Trump on Oct. 13, with the president of the National Border Patrol Council saying in a rally that every community in the country would “go to hell” if Vice President Kamala wins the presidential election.

The White House defended the latest border numbers in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“The data published today by U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows that since the President announced new executive actions to secure the border on June 4, unlawful border crossings have dropped by more than 55% to the lowest levels in over four years,” a spokesperson stated on Tuesday. “Encounters between ports of entry are lower than they were during the last several months of the previous Administration.”

“For months, the Biden-Harris Administration worked with a bipartisan group of Senators to craft a historic bipartisan border security agreement that would have added thousands of frontline personnel to the border – but Congressional Republicans voted against that agreement twice – proving that they are more interested in cynically playing politics than securing the border,” the statement continued. “The Biden-Harris Administration has taken effective action, and Republican officials continue to do nothing.”

Jason Hopkins is a reporter covering immigration issues for the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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