Recently, Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) has revealed a jawdropping statistic regarding migrant encounters on the border: The total number of migrant apprehensions for 2021 has soared to astonishing new heights.
Data reveals that CBP encountered more migrant apprehensions than any other year since 1924, which corresponds to the agency’s first founding. A CBP source has revealed that the unofficial apprehension record reveals 1,646,000, or nearly 1.65M encounters, for the year thus far.
These numbers are spread between the nine different southwest Border Patrol Sectors, which span from California to Texas. Per the CBP, the prior record for illegal migration occurred in 2000, when 1,643,679 migrants, or nearly 1.65M, were arrested.
In addition, the CPB source also reveals that the final number of apprehensions will likely increase by at least 10,000, after the fiscal year formally ends on September 30, with a report set to be released in mid-October.
The total number of migrants does not account for the 2,000+ migrants that are routinely arrested by CBP along the coastal and northern borders of the nation, nor does it include the migrant apprehensions that the CBP makes at various points of entry.
Relative to the southern border, the number of apprehensions amongst coastal and northern Border Patrol sectors are generally lagging relative to the past year, though this decline could be attributed to the fact that numerous CBP officials have been relocated to the southern border, resulting in staffing shortages on the coast and up north.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has claimed that the rise in illegal immigration is not a new concern, and he proclaimed that “a large number” of migrants also made their way to the United States in 2019, as well as in 2010 and 2014.
“This is nothing new,” Mayorkas asserted.
However, Mayorkas’s statements run contrary to the reality surrounding the total number of migrant apprehensions that have occurred along the U.S.-Mexico border, which has been higher than any other annual apprehension statistic.
In 1925, only 22,199 migrants were encountered at the border, and most of the migrants were arrested by horseback-mounted CBP officials.
