Latest Border Protection figures show rising would-be immigrant encounters, but from changing points of origin

The September operational statistics from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reveal a dramatically changing landscape, showcasing significantly increased migrant encounters.

Individual encounters reached 182,704 in September, a 15 percent increase over the previous month. Only 55,068 of these came from Mexico and northern Central America, representing a 23 percent decrease compared to the same time period last year. Rather, dominating these unique encounters – meaning people not previously encountered in the prior year – were 77,302 cases with people from Venezuela, Cuba, or Nicaragua. This is new territory: the massive influx represented a 245 percent increase compared to September 2021. Many of these were asylum seekers.

“While failing regimes in Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua continued to drive a new wave of migration across the Western Hemisphere, the number of Venezuelans arriving at the southern border decreased sharply nearly every day since we launched additional joint actions with Mexico to reduce irregular migration and create a more fair, orderly and safe process for people fleeing the humanitarian and economic crisis in their country,” CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus said. “Over the past week, the number of Venezuelans attempting to enter the country fell more than 80 percent compared to the week prior to the launch of the joint enforcement actions. While this early data is not reflected in the latest report, it confirms what we’ve said all along: when there is a lawful and orderly way to enter the country, individuals will be less likely to put their lives in the hands of smugglers and try to cross the border unlawfully.”

Unfortunately, many are also undertaking multiple border crossing attempts – something the CBP attached to a large number of expulsions undertaken during the COVID-19 pandemic. These non-unique encounters pushed total figures up to 227,547 encounters along the southwest U.S. land border, a 12 percent increase compared to August. Most of these were single adults, but encounters with unaccompanied children also increased by 5 percent, to 11,900 in September. Of all these, 77,252 cases were processed for expulsion under Title 42, which dictates removals of persons who recently left a country with a communicable disease. Another 153,295 were processed under Title 8, which rejects non-asylum-seeking immigrants from entry without being admitted or paroled or at places not designated by the Attorney General.

Nationwide, the CBP updated its total encounters for the year to 2,766,582 at the end of September.

In non-human stats, the CBP also noted that its cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, fentanyl, and marijuana seizures were down a total of 39 percent in September compared to August.