Record 2.2 Million Migrants Apprehended Along Southwest Border During Last Year

U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehended a record-setting 2.2 million migrants during the recently closed Fiscal Year 22. This represents a massive 33 percent increase over the previous record set just last year by the Biden administration.

The year-ending Southwest Land Border Encounters Report released after hours Friday night confirmed an unofficial report published by Breitbart Texas earlier this month revealing the apprehension of just over 2.2 million migrants. The apprehension of 2,206,436 migrants who illegally crossed the southwest border between ports of entry is up by 547,230 over last year’s record-setting report.

By contrast, during FY2020, President Donald Trump’s last year in office, Border Patrol agents apprehended only 400,651.

Much like its transportation of migrants across the nation under the cover of darkness, the Biden administration rolled out the record-setting border apprehensions report after close of business Friday night. CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus placed the blame, not on changes in Biden administration policies, but on “failing regimes” in other countries.

“While failing regimes in Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua continued to drive a new wave of migration across the (W)estern 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,” said CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus.

However, more than 57 percent of migrants apprehended came from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico — Mexican migrant apprehensions jumped nearly 22 percent. The apprehension of migrants from all other nations totaled more than 947,000 migrants of the 2.2 million total.

The biggest demographic increase in migrants apprehended came in the category of single adults. More than 70 percent of the total apprehensions were single adults. The 1,574,381 single adult apprehensions represent an increase of more than 48 percent over the prior year. The number is nearly equal to the increase in apprehensions in FY22.

The historically quiet Del Rio Sector became the busiest of the nine southwest Border Patrol Sectors with the apprehension of 480,931 migrants — up nearly 86 percent over last year’s apprehension of just under 260,000 migrants.

The Rio Grande Valley Sector fell to second place with a reported decrease in apprehensions of nearly 15 percent. Apprehensions fell from 549,077 to 468,124 as migrant crossings moved westward.

The Yuma Sector experienced the largest percentage increase in migrant apprehensions with more than 310,000 — up nearly 171 percent from the prior year.