Illegal U.S.–Mexican Border Crossings Fall to Lowest Level in Two Years
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Crossings at the U.S.–Mexico border fell below 130,000 in January 2023, a 42 percent drop compared to December 2022. They are now at their lowest number since the first full month of Joe Biden’s presidency.
The drop signals that recent initiatives by the Biden administration may be working to quell illegal crossings. “I think it points to the fact that the model we have put forward here . . . can really dramatically change migratory patterns and migratory behavior,” one anonymous border official told Axios.
In early January, the White House extended Title 42, a policy first adopted by former president Donald Trump to restrict asylum-seekers from the Mexico border under a public-health rationale.
President Biden’s revision permitted up to 30,000 people from Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua to enter America lawfully, with the backing of a financial sponsor, while expelling those here illegally. Members of the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency are now confirming that the intervening months have witnessed a 97 percent drop in border crossings from these nationals since the peak in mid December.
On Friday, reports emerged that White House officials were considering a plan to overhaul America’s asylum-adjudication system to expedite work at border-processing centers. Part of the developing legislation would include unique procedures based on an applicant’s nationality giving preference to individuals from countries with historically high approval rates.
“It’s a total rethink of the approach and is not constrained by current laws,” an unnamed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official told Reuters.
Still, recent developments have not eased mounting pressure on the White House among House Republicans to address the border crisis. Hearings held by both the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees earlier this month have highlighted the economic and emotional costs of border communities struggling with fentanyl overdoses and gang violence.
“I have personally experienced the good, the bad, and the ugly of being a border county. Currently, this is the ugliest I’ve experienced,” Mark Dannels, the sheriff of Cochise County, Ariz., told the House Judiciary Committee on February 1.
“Border-related crimes are at an all-time high. Death, murder investigations, aggravated acts against my citizens . . . and, yes, assault against law enforcement officials,” Dannels added.
On Friday, the DHS hired a legal firm to represent the federal agency in a potential impeachment trial of Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas brought by House Republicans.
Under President Joe Biden, the number of illegal migrants apprehended along the Mexico border rose to a record high in 2022. Customs and Border Patrol caught 234,088 people crossing along the southern border in April 2022, the highest figure in the recorded history of the DHS.
