Southern Border Sees More Migrant Encounters In September Than Ever Before

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBD) released statistics on Saturday showing that September recorded the most monthly border encounters ever, ending fiscal year 2023, which likewise reported the most yearly encounters on record.

The number of encounters along the southern border in September totaled 269,735, far greater than the 232,963 and 183,479 encounters that were reported in August and July, respectively, according to CBP data. September also marks the end of FY 2023, during which border encounters totaled 2,475,669, as opposed to 2,378,944 and 1,734,686 in 2021 and 2020, respectively.

“In response to high rates of encounters across the southwest border in September, CBP surged resources and personnel,” Troy Miller, senior official performing the duties of the CBP Commissioner, said in a press release Saturday. “We are continually engaging with domestic and foreign partners to address historic hemispheric migration, including large migrant groups traveling on freight trains, and to enforce consequences including by preparing for direct repatriations to Venezuela.”

In response to the drastic increase in encounters along the southern border, the Biden administration has cleared a path to construct more border walls along the Rio Grande Valley Sector of Texas. The Biden administration claimed that they were building a portion of the wall because the funds were already appropriated in 2019 during the Trump administration and that they could not use the money elsewhere.

CBP was seen in September cutting a metal barbed wire in Eagle Pass, Texas, letting the migrants cross the border illegally. Eagle Pass Mayor Rolando Salinas Jr. issued a declaration to the 28,000-person border town announcing a state of emergency following the influx of migrants in September.

“CBP will continue to remain vigilant, making operational adjustments as necessary and enforcing consequences under U.S. immigration law,” Miller said in the press release. “The supplemental funding request announced yesterday would provide critically needed additional resources including additional CBP agents and officers to support our essential missions.”

CBP did not immediately respond to a request to comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.