Good news, bad news: U.S.-Mexico border arrests set a record for June

AP Photo/Eric Gay

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. It’s an all too predictable story that is written every month during the Biden border crisis. Record numbers of apprehensions are being made on the southern border by Border Patrol agents. This month there is a little good news to go along with the bad news. Apprehensions were down from the record high number in May but the number of apprehensions sets a record for the month of June.

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It’s a little confusing but it makes sense. The record set last month was for the month of June compared to previous years. It is a monthly high record.

U.S. Border Patrol reported processing migrants 191,898 times along the southern border in June, a nearly 14% drop from May, when the agency carried out over 222,000 apprehensions, an all-time monthly high. The previous record for June was reported last year, when Border Patrol carried out 178,649 arrests.

Another 15,518 migrants were processed by U.S. authorities at government ports of entry, where the Biden administration has been admitting some asylum-seekers it has deemed to be vulnerable, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) statistics, which were submitted to a federal court in Texas.

A 14% drop is better than nothing, I suppose. At least the trend may be starting to go in the right direction. But the fact remains that there are not enough Border Patrol agents and immigration agents and immigration officers assigned to the southern border. The humanitarian and operational crises that the Biden border crisis have produced are unprecedented, yet entirely intentionally done by Team Biden. The Biden border crisis rarely makes national news coverage because the mainstream media is busy covering for their guy Joe and also because it shows how effective the previous administration’s policies on border security were. There is absolutely nothing humane in what is happening along the southern border.

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Record numbers of migrants are coming from beyond Mexico and the Northern Triangle. People are showing up at the southern border from countries around the world. The number of repeat offenders making multiple illegal crossings is increasing. They are expelled at the border and simply try again and again until they succeed.

Adding June’s numbers into the tally, U.S. border authorities have processed migrants more than 1.7 million times in fiscal year 2022. That is higher than the record set in 2021. There are still three months left in the fiscal year. The decrease in numbers from last month may be a signal that a seasonal slowdown is beginning. The hot summer months typically produce lower numbers of illegal migrants after soaring in the spring. This year’s numbers in the spring months were recorder-busters. Three of the last four months saw more than 200,000 apprehensions each month.

In June, U.S. immigration officials deported 12,888 migrants under regular deportation procedures, while carrying out 79,652 releases, according to government statistics submitted to the federal court in Texas on Friday.

While there was an increase in apprehensions of migrants from Guatemala, Honduras, Venezuela, and El Salvador in June compared to May, arrivals from the other top migrant-sending countries of Mexico, Cuba, Colombia, Nicaragua, Haiti and Brazil decreased.

More than 66,000 of the migrant encounters in June involved Mexicans, 24,617 involved Guatemalans, 23,972 involved Hondurans, 16,170 involved Cubans, 13,194 involved Venezuelans, 12,594 involved Colombians, 11,204 involved Nicaraguans, 9,094 involved Salvadorans, 4,084 involved Haitians and 4,025 involved Brazilians, CBP data show.

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The number of deportations is still woefully small. Most illegal migrants are not expelled under Title 42. They are released with a court notice, sent to detention centers, or deported under regular deportation procedures.

The hot weather months are bringing warnings to migrants that desert heat is a killer, not just in Texas but also in California. For example, officials in Mexicali are advising migrants to remain in shelters and not travel north of the border. Temperatures are expected to reach 117 degrees in the coming days.

“This is a city of immigrants,” said Mexicali Mayor Norma Bustamante. “A lot of people pass through and don’t know this type of climate and it’s a lot of people who dare cross the desert to the United States.”

Bustamante says her city has opened several “hydration centers” where people can cool off in the air conditioning, take a shower or even grab a shave.

They are also passing out sodium packets to migrants and residents to keep hydrated.

“The last report I got stated 10 people have died recently because of the hot weather,” Bustamante said.

This is all a part of Biden’s plan to transform America. Unfortunately, he is transforming America into a lawless and dangerous place. Biden shuns enforcement of current immigration laws and DHS (along with Kamala, the border czar) continue to say the border is secure and they have everything under control. They don’t. You may have to watch Fox News to see it but the border is porous and groups of migrants continue to cross the Rio Grande River every day into Texas. The only time the national media is interested in covering the Biden border crisis is if there is a story like Whipgate, which was completely fabricated by a Democrat operative. Progressive Democrats want open borders. Joe Biden is going along with that.

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