Record 2 Million Migrants Cross Border Between Ports of Entry During Past 12 Months

More than two million migrants illegally crossed the border from Mexico into the United States during Fiscal Year 2021. The crossings include 1.66 million apprehended by Border Patrol agents and an estimated 400,000 classified as “got aways.”

Border Patrol agents apprehended a record-setting 1,659,206 migrants who illegally crossed the border from Mexico during the recently ended fiscal year, according to the Southwest Border Land Encounters report released on Friday by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials. Additionally, nearly 400,000 more migrants are estimated to be “got aways,” information received from Border Patrol officials revealed.

“The men and women of CBP continued to rise admirably to the challenge, despite the strain associated with operating during a global pandemic that has claimed far too many lives among our frontline personnel,” CBP Acting Commissioner Troy Miller said in a written statement. “CBP will continue its work to ensure safety and security at our borders, while managing a fair and orderly immigration system, and facilitating the legitimate trade and travel that is vital to the American economy.”

The apprehension of nearly 1.66 million migrants who illegally crossed the border between ports of entry represents an increase of nearly 315 percent over the previous fiscal year’s total of 400,651, the report indicates. The apprehension of migrant families skyrocketed by more than 763 percent. Unaccompanied minor apprehensions jumped by 374 percent and single adults by 235 percent.

The Rio Grande Valley Sector continues to lead the nine sectors located along the southwest border with Mexico. Agents in this sector apprehended nearly 550,00 migrants — an increase of nearly 506 percent over the previous year’s total of just over 90,000.

This is followed by the Del Rio Sector with nearly 260,000 apprehensions — an increase of 543 percent over the 40,342 apprehended in FY2020.

The five Texas-based sectors account for 1,151,796 of the southwest border apprehensions (69 percent). Those include more than 683,000 single adults, 355,000 family units, and 113,700 unaccompanied minors.

“This year’s extraordinary migration wave has posed dire logistical, humanitarian and political challenges for President Biden during the first months of his administration, which promised to usher in an “orderly” and “humane” border policy,” CBS News reported.

“I’ve never seen it as bad as what it is right now,” National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd said in an article published by NPR. “We just don’t have the manpower and resources to do what we need to do to both detect and apprehend everything that’s crossing the border.”