Washington, D.C. (January 21, 2023) – In a Friday news dump, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection released the
statistics on Border Patrol apprehensions of illegal migrants at the Southwest border in December. The 251,487 migrants encountered at the southern border in last month exceeds the number for
any month in recorded history—at a point in the year when apprehensions should be at their lowest levels.
In just the first three months of FY 2023, apprehensions at the Southwest border have already exceeded annual totals for every year between
FY 2009 and FY 2018.
These huge numbers follow the apprehension record set in
FY 2022, when agents caught more than 2.2 million illegal entrants, exceeding the prior record (set only
the year before) by more than 547,000.
Andrew Arthur, the Center’s resident fellow in law and policy, said, ”While the Biden administration is already working on hiding the true nature of the disaster at the Southwest border by funneling would-be migrants into the United States illegally and rebranding them as ‘parolees’, these numbers suggest that cities and towns across the United States will be hit with even larger numbers of new arrivals whom they will have to feed, clothe, and house come the spring, when illegal entries normally hit their peak.”
“Unless the Biden administration shifts course, or Congress forces the president to change his border policies, more than three million aliens—a population larger than 17
U.S. states and the cities of Philadelphia and Dallas
combined—will enter illegally over the Southwest border in FY 2023,” Arthur added.
