Border crossings are near record highs and may go up more on Dec. 21 (2024)
Despite new restrictions on asylum-seekers, daily migrant crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border have remained near record highs, say three sources familiar with the latest numbers, as the Biden administration braces for a possible extra surge of thousands more per day when Covid restrictions end this month.
Since it was imposed by the Trump administration in March 2020, the Covid protocol known as Title 42 has led Customs and Border Protection to turn back migrants crossing the border more than 2.4 million times, according to CBP data.
A federal judge in Washington ruled recently that the Biden administration must lift Title 42 by midnight Dec. 21, although some Republican-run states have asked courts to block the ruling. Policymakers in Washington, as well as officials at the southern border, have long predicted a surge in migrants when the policy is lifted. They have warned about backlogs and overcrowding in border processing centers, as well as funding shortfalls.
In October, the U.S. began using Title 42 to turn away Venezuelan border crossers, whose numbers were soaring. They had previously been exempt. As of Oct. 24, just days after the policy was enacted, there was an 80% drop in Venezuelans crossing the border.According to new numbers that have not yet been made public, however, the policy did not depress the overall daily total of migrants crossing. New nationalities, including Mexicans and Central Americans, took the place of the Venezuelans.
CBP agents and officers are now apprehending migrants 7,500 to 8,000 times a day, the sources familiar with the data said, which is at or close to the record levels before Venezuelans became subject to Title 42. The sources said estimates of the extra number of migrants who might cross daily when Title 42 ends approach 2,500, meaning daily apprehension totals might hit 10,000.
Two sources familiar with internal discussions at the Department of Homeland Security and the White House said that while many ideas have been considered to combat what could be an even bigger surge in border traffic, there is no “serious planning” around any idea to limit asylum-seekers from coming into the U.S.
A DHS spokesperson said the Biden administration’s Venezuela policy has been effective at curbing Venezuelans, even if other nationalities have kept overall border numbers high.
“The Venezuelan migration enforcement process announced on Oct. 12has substantially reduced attempted irregular entries of Venezuelans at the southwest border —from 1,100 a day on average the week before the announcement toaround 100 aday on average this week,” the spokesperson said, adding thatthe administration inherited a “gutted” immigration system from the previous administration.
When Title 42 lifts, migrants of all nationalities will be able to come into the U.S. to make asylum claims, just as they did before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has previously detailed plans for lifting Title 42 that would allow for a faster asylum process that would move to quickly deport those who do not qualify.However, former Biden administration officials have said the plan would need more funding to scale up to address the number of asylum-seekers expected to cross the border when Title 42 lifts.
Venezuelans at the border
Venezuelans and some other nationalities, including Cubans and Nicaraguans, had been exempt from expulsions from the U.S. under Title 42, in large part because of their countries’ reluctance to take deportees back. Under a deal the U.S. and Mexico struck in October, Venezuelans began to be turned back into Mexico rather than allowed to claim asylum. The agreement was accompanied by a new policy allowing up to 24,000 Venezuelans to apply to live and work in the U.S. if they could find U.S.-based sponsors.
Until then, Venezuelans were the fastest-growing nationality of undocumented border crossers entering the U.S., and they filled many of the buses Republican governors were sending to Democratic-run cities such as New York, Washington and Chicago.
Since the U.S. began turning them back across the border, Venezuelans stuck in Mexico have clashed with authorities who dismantled their camps and threw their belongings into garbage trucks, leaving them with nothing and nowhere to go.
Carrie Filipetti, a former deputy assistant secretary for Cuba and Venezuela at the U.S. State Department, said the U.S. should not focus its policies toward Venezuela solely on limiting immigration but rather on addressing the human rights abuses of the Venezuelan government.
“To keep legal immigration and asylum-seekers from safely coming to the U.S. is concerning from a humanitarian perspective.”
Julia Ainsley
Julia Ainsley is the homeland security correspondent for NBC News and covers the Department of Homeland Security for the NBC News Investigative Unit.
The U.S. Border Patrol had nearly 250,000 encounters with migrants crossing into the United States from Mexico in December 2023, according to government statistics. That was the highest monthly total on record, easily eclipsing the previous peak of about 224,000 encounters in May 2022.
The Border Patrol tallied 249,785 arrests on the Mexican border in December, up 31% from 191,112 in November and up 13% from 222,018 in December 2022, the previous all-time high.
By region of birth, immigrants from Asia accounted for 28% of all immigrants. Other regions make up smaller shares: Latin America (27%), excluding Mexico but including the Caribbean (10%), Central America (9%) and South America (9%) Europe, Canada and other North America (12%)
The number began to rise in 2018, largely driven by Central Americans fleeing a series of complex crises including gang violence, poverty, political repression and natural disasters. Detentions fell again in the summer of 2019, which US officials credited to increased enforcement by Mexico and Guatemala.
However, since the government has special security concerns at ports of entry and border checkpoints, openly recording or filming may result in seizure of your recording device and/or further detention. WHAT CAN YOU RECORD? You are allowed to record law enforcement agents performing their duties in public areas.
About 2,200 daily arrivals are immigrants or refugees who have been invited to become permanent residents of the United States. Finally, about 5,000 foreigners make unauthorized entries each day. About 4,000 of them are apprehended just after they cross the U.S.-Mexico border.
The law governing U.S. immigration policy is called the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). The INA allows the United States to grant up to 675,000 permanent immigrant visas each year across various visa categories.
When a person is caught illegally crossing the border—lawfully known as an improper entry—the first offense may include: Civil penalty fine of $50 to $250. Imprisonment for up to six months. Both fines and imprisonment.
Immigrants' median household income in 2022 was approximately $75,500, slightly higher than that of U.S.-born households, $74,600. At the same time, immigrants were slightly more likely to be in poverty than their U.S.-born counterparts (14 percent versus 12 percent).
For decades one country has topped the list. Mexicans represent the largest group of immigrants living in the United States. That's been true since 1980, according to the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute. And the Mexico-US route is the largest migration corridor in the world.
On average, immigrants came from more advantageous background as the cost of migration limited poorer individuals from migrating. Economic inequality, rural poverty, significantly lower wages, and better opportunities have also played a role throughout the 20th century as factors pulling Mexicans to migrate to the US.
Mexico does deport American citizens who are in the country illegally, according to government data and Rafael Fernández de Castro, Ph. D., the director of UC San Diego's Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies. But “the deportation of American citizens is not that common,” Fernández de Castro said.
From fleeing war, violence, dictatorship, or national disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes to seeking greater economic prosperity and stability, Latina and Latino immigrants each have unique reasoning and experiences that have driven them to leave their home countries.
The San Ysidro and El Chaparral ports of entry jointly constitute the world's busiest land border crossing. 40% of the total population residing in communities along the U.S.-Mexico border. There are more than 106 million individual crossings. 48 million cars and trucks cross each year.
The international land border between the United States and Canada is the longest in the world at almost 8,900 kilometers. It includes the border between Canada and the continental U.S. as well as the border between Alaska and northern Canada.
Capacity. The Ambassador Bridge is the busiest crossing on the Canada–United States border. The four-lane bridge carries more than 10,000 commercial vehicles on a typical weekday.
The 1 km-long motorway crossing, also referred to as the Malaysia-Singapore Causeway, is one of the world's busiest border crossings, averaging 350,000 travellers and 100,000 vehicles daily. During peak periods such as school holidays, it handles more than 400,000 crossings daily.
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