Biden Admin Starts Fiscal Year with Record-Setting Migrant Apprehensions in October

The Biden Administration began Fiscal Year 2023 with a record-setting 204,000 migrant apprehensions in October. The late-night announcement on Monday followed the forced resignation of U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Chris Magnus.

During the month of October, Border Patrol agents apprehended a record-setting 204,273 migrants, according to the CBP Southwest Land Border Encounters Report released late Monday night. The record-setting first month of the new fiscal year follows back-to-back record-setting years in FY 21 and 22. The report confirms a Breitbart Texas report published earlier this month.

Once again, the Biden Administration blamed other countries for the increased border crossings and apprehensions that followed day-one changes in border security and immigration policies when President Joe Biden took office.

“The large number of individuals fleeing failing communist regimes in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba is contributing to an increased number of migrants attempting to cross the border,” CBP officials wrote in a statement released on Monday night.

CBP officials acknowledged that October’s numbers were 1.5 percent higher than September’s. The report fails to note that October’s apprehension numbers represent a 28 percent increase over October 2021 and a 196 percent increase over October 2020 — shortly before Biden’s election.

Acting CBP Commissioner Troy Miller, who took over the agency following the forced resignation of Commissioner Magnus, took credit for the agency reducing the number of Venezuelan migrants with an abrupt policy change to return them to Mexico.

“In response to the change in populations we are encountering at the border, and continuing in our commitment to provide lawful pathways for admission so that desperate asylum seekers do not place their vulnerable lives in the hands of smugglers, we implemented a new process for Venezuelan nationals that has resulted in a dramatic reduction in the number of Venezuelan encounters at our border,” Miller said in a written statement. “The new process has seen Venezuelan encounters drop from approximately 1100 per day to about 300 per day by the end of October.”

The number of Venezuelan migrant apprehensions fell from 33,84 in September to 22,044 in October, the report states.

Demographics of migrant apprehensions are shifting along the Rio Grande as Venezuelan migrants appear to be moving in large numbers from the Del Rio Sector to the El Paso Sector. The Del Rio Sector is now seeing increasing numbers of Cuban migrants.

In October, the El Paso Sector apprehended the largest number of migrants — 53,284. This represents an increase of nearly 281 percent over the previous October.

Del Rio Sector agents apprehended 42,376 migrants (up 50 percent from the prior year) and the Rio Grande Valley Sector apprehended 28,279 (down early 38 percent).

CBP officials defended their actions with the following statement:

DHS has been executing a comprehensive and deliberate strategy to secure our borders and build a safe, orderly, and humane immigration system. The strategy is based on six pillars: surging resources; increasing efficiency to reduce strain on the border; employing an aggressive consequence regime; bolstering the capacity of NGOs and partner with state and local partners; going after cartels and smugglers; and working with our regional partners.

Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.