The number of arrests for illegally crossing the U.S. border from Mexico fell 7% in September, the lowest in more than four years, authorities announced Tuesday. This was likely the last monthly reading during a presidential campaign in which Republican candidate Donald Trump has made immigration a key issue.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Border Patrol apprehended 53,858 people, down from 58,009 in August and the lowest since August 2020, when apprehensions totaled 47,283. It became.
Mexican nationals account for nearly half of those arrested and make up the majority of arrests. In December, arrests reached a record high of 250,000 people, but fewer than one in four were Mexican. The number of arrests of other major nationalities seen at the border, including Guatemalans, Hondurans, Colombians and Ecuadorians, has fallen sharply this year.
San Diego continued to be the area with the most illegal crossings in September, followed by El Paso, Texas, and Tucson, Arizona.
In the government’s fiscal year ending Sept. 30, Border Patrol apprehensions stood at 1.53 million, after exceeding 2 million people for the first time in the previous two years.
The White House has touted the numbers as evidence that tough asylum restrictions introduced in June are having the intended effect and blamed congressional Republicans for opposing a border security bill that was defeated in February. Vice President Kamala Harris is using this line of attack against President Trump to blunt criticism that the Biden administration is weak on immigration enforcement.
“The Biden-Harris Administration has taken effective action, but Republican officials continue to do nothing,” White House Press Secretary Angelo Fernandez Hernandez said in a statement.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform, a frequent critic of the administration and supporter of immigration restrictions, attributed the recent decline to increased enforcement by Mexican authorities within the country’s domestic borders, saying the White House had “imposed a number of concerns ahead of the 2024 election.” “We were effectively outsourcing America’s border security to Mexico.” It is a policy that the Mexican government can rescind at any time if it chooses. ”
The number of arrests plummeted as Mexico ramped up its crackdown in December, and the number plummeted even more after U.S. asylum restrictions took effect in June. U.S. officials have not hesitated to emphasize Mexico’s role.
While Mexican authorities have made relatively few deportations this year, they are facing more migrants, creating a bottleneck. Panamanian authorities reported an increase in migrants walking through the notorious Darien Gorge during September, but the number was still well below last year.
CBP Acting Director Troy Miller said last week that his administration is working with Mexico and other countries to collectively address immigration issues.
“We remain concerned about the bottlenecks, we continue to review the bottlenecks, and we continue to address the issues with our partners,” Miller said at a news conference in San Diego.
The Biden administration has pushed to expand new legal routes to enter the country in an effort to deter illegal immigration. In September, CBP admitted more than 44,600 people through reservations through an online system called CBP One, bringing the total to 852,000 since its introduction in January 2023.
Another Biden policy would allow up to 30,000 financially sponsored people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to enter the country each month through the airport. By September, more than 531,000 people had entered the country from these four countries.
