August Migrant Apprehensions Jump 312 Percent over Prior Year

Border Patrol agents apprehended nearly 200,000 migrants who illegally crossed the border from Mexico during the month of August. This represents an increase of more 312 percent increase over the same month in 2020.

The apprehension of migrants by Border Patrol agents along the southwestern border with Mexico fell slightly for the first time since President Joe Biden took office in January. Agents placed 195,852 migrants in custody in August. This is up 312 percent from one year ago and up just over 100 percent from February — President Biden’s first full month in office.

“The men and women at CBP continue to step up to meet the demands of high numbers of encounters at our southern border. CBP recorded 2 percent fewer encounters in August than July,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection Acting Commissioner Troy Miller said in a written statement Wednesday evening. “The vast majority of single adults encountered in August, along with a substantial share of families, continued to be expelled under the CDC’s Title 42 authority.”

In February, President Biden’s first full month in office, apprehensions jumped to 97,642. Since the end of January, apprehensions jumped from 75,142 to 195,852 — an increase of 160 percent in six months, according to the CBP’s August Southwest Land Border Encounters report.

The Rio Grande Valley Sector in South Texas continues to see massive increases in what is already the busiest sector in the nation. Agents in this sector apprehended 81,162 migrants in August— an increase of 961 percent over the same month last year. So far this year, RGV Sector agents have apprehended more than 493,993  migrants so far this fiscal year. This is up 542 percent over the same period last fiscal year, officials reported.

The Del Rio Sector jumped into second place with the apprehension of 32,362 migrants including 18,264 single adults, 834 family units, and 13,324 unaccompanied minors.

Between October 1, 2020, and August 31, 2021, Border Patrol agents apprehended 1,472,655 migrants (up 326 percent over last year) including 953,591 single adults (up 252 percent), 388,354 Family Unit Aliens (up 702 percent), and 130,710 Unaccompanied Single Minors (up 388 percent).

CBP officials report the following: (Note: These numbers include Border Patrol and CBP encounters)

CBP Enforcement Numbers for August 2021

The large number of expulsions during the pandemic has contributed to a larger-than-usual number of migrants making multiple border crossing attempts, which means that total encounters somewhat overstate the number of unique individuals arriving at the border.

• The number of unique encounters in August 2021 was 156,641.
• In total, there were 208,887 encounters along the Southwest Border, a 2 percent drop compared to July. Of those, 25 percent involved individuals who had at least one prior encounter in the previous 12 months, compared to an average one-year re-encounter rate of 14 percent for Fiscal Years 2014-2019.
• Nearly half (49 percent) of encounters were single adults, with 103,129 encounters in August, a 7 percent decrease compared to July.
• 93,414 encounters, more than 44 percent of the total, were processed for expulsion under Title 42. 115,473 encounters were processed under Title 8.
  • 76,895 encounters involving single adults (75 percent) were processed for expulsion under Title 42, with 26,234 processed under Title 8.
  • 16,240 encounters involving family unit individuals (19 percent) were processed for expulsion under Title 42, with 70,247 processed under Title 8.

• A total of 1,002,722 unique individuals have been encountered year-to-date during Fiscal Year 2021, compared to 851,513 during the same time period in Fiscal Year 2019.
• In July, CBP began a Repeat Offender initiative, under which single adults who have previously been apprehended and deported under Title 8 are referred for prosecution.
• As part of the United States’ mitigation efforts in response to the rise in COVID-19 cases due to the Delta variant, the Department of Homeland Security has begun to transport individuals expelled under Title 42 by plane to the Mexican interior.
• Certain individuals who are not able to be expelled under Title 42 are placed in expedited removal proceedings.  Expedited removal provides an accelerated procedure to remove individuals who do not have a basis under U.S. law to be in the United States. So far in Fiscal Year 2021, U.S. Border Patrol agents have placed nearly 72,000 migrants in expedited removal proceedings.

Unaccompanied Children

• Encounters of unaccompanied children decreased 1 percent, with 18,847 encounters in August compared with 18,958 in July. In August, the average number of unaccompanied children in CBP custody was 1,435 per day, compared with an average of 1,353 per day in July.

Family Unit individuals

• Encounters of family unit individuals increased by 4 percent from 83,493 in July to 86,487 in August—still below the peak of 88,587 encounters in May 2019.  The number of encounters with family unit individuals so far this fiscal year (415,185) remains below the number of encounters at the same point in Fiscal Year 2019 (505,102).