U.S. seeing fewer border crossings at the southern border, CBP says

U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported this month that the number of individuals who crossed the southern border in April significantly decreased compared with December of last year. In December, CBP personnel encountered more than 300,000 people crossing the border. In April, they encountered less than 180,000 migrants at the border.

Why the sizable decrease in such a short time? Most of the decrease in border encounters took place in the period from December to January. Numbers rose slightly in the next few months before returning to January’s levels in April. In a February release discussing January border encounters, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Acting Commissioner Troy Miller attributed the significant drop in encounters largely to seasonal trends and increased enforcement efforts.

What do non-Biden administration officials have to say? Republicans on the House Committee on Homeland Security allege that since President Joe Biden took office, 11.5 million illegal immigrants have crossed into the United States. They note that that’s more than the population of 43 out of the 50 states—with exceptions only for California, Florida, Texas, and a few others.

The House Homeland Security Committee added that in this fiscal year alone, Customs and Border Protection agents have released almost 740,000 apprehended illegal immigrants into the United States with notices to appear in court.

Last month, the House Homeland Security Committee also reported that in just the first six months of this fiscal year, more than 24,000 Chinese nationals had crossed the U.S. southern border—an 8,000 percent increase compared to March 2021 and more than the total number of Chinese nationals who appeared at the southern border during the entirety of the last fiscal year.

Dig deeper: Read Addie Offereins’ report in WORLD Magazine about how the economic consequences of illegal immigration fall on Texas ranchers and farmers.