Venezuelans topped Mexicans for the largest group of citizens arrested for illegally crossing the US southern border for the first time on record in September.
According to the latest monthly report released this Saturday, US Customs and Border Protection recorded 218,763 encounters of people of all nationalities between ports of entry along the southwest border in September 2023, representing a 21% increase from the 181,084 illegal immigrants apprehended in August.
Venezuelans were arrested 54,833 times by the Border Patrol after entering from Mexico in September, more than double from the 22,090 arrests in August and more than the previous monthly high of 33,749 arrests in September 2022. In for decades, Mexicans accounted for most of the illegal crossings. but the flows have shifted in the past decade to Central Americans and, more recently, to people from South America, Africa and Asia.
Mexicans were arrested 39,733 times crossing the border in September, well behind Venezuelans. Guatemalans, Hondurans and Colombians rounded out the top five.
HIGH MIGRANT NUMBERS BREAK MANY RECORDS IN NEW BLOW TO BIDEN BORDER STRATEGY
President Biden looks at a large “Welcome to Mexico” sign hanging from the Bridge of the Americas as he tours the El Paso port of entry, Jan. 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
The Biden administration recently announced temporary legal status for the nearly 500,000 Venezuelans already in the United States as of July 31, while promising to deport illegals who arrive after that date and fail to obtain asylum. It recently began deportation flights to Venezuela as part of a diplomatic thaw with the government of Nicolás Maduro, a longtime adversary. The US “increased resources and personnel” at the border in September, said Troy Miller, acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection.
“We continue to engage with domestic and foreign partners to address historic hemispheric migration, including large groups of migrants traveling on freight trains, and to implement the aftermath, including preparing for direct repatriations to Venezuela ,” Miller said.
CBP recorded 53,296 encounters involving Mexican nationals along the southern land border, up from 55,493 Mexican migrants in August 2023, and 63,431 in September 2022. This includes both people caught crossing illegally and those processed at US-Mexico border ports of entry .
Migrants crossing into the US from Mexico are greeted by concertina wire along the Rio Grande, Sept. 21, 2023, in Eagle Pass, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
There were 4,042 encounters with Chinese nationals along the southern land border in September, compared to 2,379 in August.
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As of September 2022, there were only 399 encounters involving Chinese nationals.
CBP recorded 1,779 encounters with Russian nationals in September, down from 2,099 in August. As of September 2022, there were 2,617 Russian encounters on the southwest border.
So far this year, there have been nearly 2.5 million encounters along the US-Mexico border, according to CBP statistics, and about 1.5 million of those people have been single adults.
President Biden speaks with Border Patrol agents as they walk along the US-Mexico border in El Paso Texas, Jan. 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
The September total reached an all-time high of 222,018 encounters recorded in December 2022, according to CBP. Arrests for the government budget year that ended Sept. 30 topped 2 million for the second year in a row, down 7% from an all-time high of more than 2.2 million arrests in the same season last year, according to the Associated Press.
About 43,000 migrants entered the country at land crossings with Mexico in September using a mobile app called CBP One, bringing the total to nearly 278,000 since the online appointment system began in January. Also, more than 265,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela entered the airports through September after applying online to financial sponsors. Along those pathways, the number of crossings reached a new monthly all-time high of 269,735 in September and a new budget-year high of nearly 2.5 million.
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The Biden administration has proposed about $14 billion for the border in a $106 billion spending package announced Friday.
Border officials arrested 18 people on the FBI’s terror watchlist in September, making fiscal year 2023 a record year for such encounters on the southern border.
According to CBP statistics released Saturday, 169 people on the FBI terror watchlist were encountered between ports of entry on the southern border in the past 12 months, a number that exceeded not only the record-setting total of FY 22 ( 98) but in the last six fiscal years combined.
Fox News’ Adam Shaw and Bill Melugin and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
