The data released by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Wednesday shows that the number of encounters with illegal immigrants at the southern border in April decreased by over 6% compared to a month prior.
In April, CBP recorded 128,900 encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border, including individuals surrendering to law enforcement at the ports of entry. This marked a decrease from March, which saw 137,480 encounters, and was just over half of the record high of 249,737 set in December.
Overall, the number of illegal immigrants encountered between ports of entry along the southwest border decreased by 6% from March and 30% from April 2023.
This decline marks the fourth lowest month during the Biden administration so far and is likely to be welcomed by the White House as President Joe Biden seeks to bolster support ahead of the November elections, where he is anticipated to face stiff competition against former President Donald Trump.
However, data released on Wednesday also indicates that the seizure of illegal drugs in border regions nationwide remains high, with a sharp 95% increase in cocaine seizures in April compared to the previous month, and fentanyl seizures reaching a five-year high.
Up to the end of April in the 2024 fiscal year, CBP had seized over 11,400 pounds of fentanyl. “Since the start of the 2023 fiscal year to April 30, 2024, the total amount of fentanyl seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection nationwide has exceeded the sum of the previous five fiscal years. We will continue to optimize our intelligence and field operations to prevent these deadly drugs from entering American communities,” CBP stated.
Data from other regions show that 434,800 individuals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela were allowed to legally enter the U.S., arriving by commercial flights and granted parole after applying online with financial sponsors.
Specifically, 95,500 Cubans, 184,600 Haitians, 83,800 Nicaraguans, and 109,200 Venezuelans underwent review and authorized travel. By the end of April 2024, 91,100 Cubans, 166,700 Haitians, 75,700 Nicaraguans, and 101,200 Venezuelans had legally arrived and been paroled.
In April, CBP agents also approved around 41,400 illegal immigrants to enter at the border through their phone appointment application called CBP One, bringing the total number of entries to over 500,000 since its launch in January 2023.
Earlier data released this month revealed that San Diego, California saw 37,370 encounters in April, making it the busiest region along the U.S.-Mexico border among the nine sectors patrolled by border agents since the 1990s.
Tucson, Arizona, and El Paso, Texas followed closely behind with 31,219 and 30,393 encounters respectively.
Senate leader in San Diego pointed the finger at what he called Biden’s “dangerous failure” in addressing the border crisis this week, revealing that the number of detained Chinese immigrants in the region had increased by 500% from the previous year.
Senate Minority Leader Brian W. Jones (Republican from San Diego) also criticized California Governor Gavin Newsom, stating, “Despite the invasion of illegal immigrants and a staggering $73 billion budget deficit, Governor Newsom and Democratic politicians continue to provide free healthcare to all illegal immigrants in California, costing taxpayers up to $5 billion annually!”
“This is shameful and unacceptable! While Democrats have cut funding to our children’s schools, they exacerbated the immigration crisis with government assistance that we simply cannot afford,” Jones continued.
Despite these challenges, CBP Acting Commissioner Troy Miller commended the work done by CBP in ensuring border security, dismantling criminal organizations and smuggling networks that put vulnerable migrants at risk while profiting from their plight.
“We have conducted the largest clearing and disruption operations against human smuggling networks in the past decade,” the acting commissioner stated.
Miller also noted that additional resources and personnel had been deployed to border-impacted areas to ensure “the safe, swift, and orderly processing of individuals, with maximum expedited turnaround for repatriation.”
He emphasized that due to enhanced enforcement efforts, encounters at the southwestern border had not increased, breaking from previous trends. “We remain vigilant against evolving migration patterns,” Miller continued. “We continue to face challenges at the border, with the national immigration system lacking sufficient resources to address these challenges, therefore we urge Congress to take action and provide our personnel with additional resources and tools.”
According to CBP, since the cancellation of the Trump-era Title 42 policy in May 2023, Department of Homeland Security agents have repatriated over 720,000 individuals, including more than 109,000 family members.
CBP stated that the total processing and repatriation volume since mid-May 2023 exceeded the volume for any full fiscal year since 2011.