The Biden administration has a habit of waiting until Friday evening to release bad news. DHS is especially fond of doing so, as its Friday news dump proved this week. The number of illegal migrant encounters at the southern border hit an all-time historic high in December.

It’s almost a running joke for those who keep an eye on when these numbers are released each month. Typically, the numbers are released sometime within the first ten days or so of a month. That changed as the Biden border crisis continued to grow worse. Each month, the release of the numbers happened a little later in the month. Now DHS releases the numbers during the late middle to end of the month, and always in a Friday evening news dump. This month was no different.

The number of illegal migrants encountered in December 2022 is recorded as 251,487, up 40% over the same period last year, according to Customs and Border Protection. It is an all-time high for the Biden administration, or any administration, for that matter. The escalating numbers report comes shortly after Biden introduced new policies on Jan. 5 to deter Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans.

U.S. authorities stopped migrants 251,487 times along the Mexican border in December, up 7% from 234,896 times in November and up 40% from 179,253 times in December 2021, Customs and Border Protection said.

Cubans were stopped nearly 43,000 times in December, up 23% from November and more than quintuple the same period a year earlier. Nicaraguans were stopped more than 35,000 times, up 3% from November and more than double from December 2021.

More migrants were also stopped from Ecuador and Peru.

Elon Musk responded to a chart that shows just how bad the numbers have gotten.

Wow

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 21, 2023

Wow, indeed. It’s hard to wrap your head around such a humanitarian and national security crisis that the Biden administration has allowed to develop along the southern border. I think people have just gotten numb to the numbers being released each month. Most people aren’t even aware of the daily barrage of illegal migrants crossing the border because, except for Fox News, the day-to-day stories are not being reported.

CBP states in a news release that the new measures being taken for some specific populations, like Venezuelans, are having a positive effect.

“The December update shows our new border enforcement measures are working. Even as overall encounters rose because of smugglers spreading misinformation around the court-ordered lifting of the Title 42 public health order, we continued to see a sharp decline in the number of Venezuelans unlawfully crossing our southwest border, down 82% from September 2022,” said CBP Acting Commissioner Troy Miller. “Early data suggests the expanded measures for Cubans, Haitians, and Nicaraguans are having a similar impact, and we look forward to sharing the additional data in the next update.

“Importantly, we are continuing to see a shifting migration pattern, with individuals from Mexico and northern Central America accounting for just 24% of unique encounters in December, a significant drop from the 42% they represented a year ago, as more migrants arrived from countries like Cuba and Nicaragua. This new migration challenge is not unique to the United States. There are 2.5 million Venezuelans now living in Colombia and 1.5 million in Peru; Brazil and Chile are hosting more than 350,000 Haitians, and the number of displaced Nicaraguans in Costa Rica has more than doubled in the last 12 months alone.

Bill Melugin, a reporter for Fox who is doing stellar reporting on the Biden border crisis, reports that December is the tenth month in a row of more than 200,000 migrant encounters. The 70,000 ‘gotaways’ in December are not included in the total number.

This is now the tenth month in a row of more than 200,000 migrant encounters at the southern border. CBP sources tell FOX there were over 70,000 known gotaways at the border in December as well. @FoxNews

— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) January 20, 2023

A total of 5.2 million migrants have tried to illegally enter the United States between February 1, 2021, and December 30, 2022. The number is the highest in any period in the Border Patrol’s 98 years.

Just 20%, or 49,405 people, were immediately expelled back across the border under Title 42, which remains in effect after the Supreme Court barred the Biden administration from ending the practice.

Among the southern border crossers apprehended by Border Patrol, 60,611 people arrived with a family member, 148,721 were single adults, and 11,849 were unaccompanied children.

The majority of illegal migrants crossing in recent months have been single adults, mostly male adults. Unaccompanied minors are automatically allowed to stay. So far, the three-month total for FY 2023, which began on October 1, is 717,660 total encounters. Of those migrants, 66.78%, or 479,229, were single adults.

A common response to the Biden border crisis is that these numbers are not sustainable. However, as we see, it continues month after month. Perhaps the new policies announced earlier this month are a result of Republicans taking back the majority in the House. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) has scheduled the committee’s first hearing on its probe into the crisis on February 6. Four Chief Patrol Agents have been asked to testify. Comer has also demanded that DHS Secretary Mayorkas hand over materials related to the investigation.

In a letter to Mayorkas demanding materials and documents, Comer blamed President Joe Biden and his DHS secretary for ‘deliberate actions’ contributing to spikes in drug cartel operations, human smuggling, and illegal immigration.

‘The American people deserve answers about the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) role in undermining Customs and Border Protection agents’ efforts to secure the southern border,’ Comer wrote in his Thursday letter to Mayorkas.

The Kentucky Republican congressman invited Chief Patrol Agents Jason Owens, Gregory Bovino, and Gloria Chavez to appear before the committee – as well as Acting Chief Patrol Agent Patricia McGurk-Daniel.

He said the career government officials will be able to better share how they are managing the migration crisis – and how the Biden administration’s actions have impacted their mission to secure the border.

It’s a start. We’ll see how far Biden and the Democrats who turn a blind eye to the crisis on the border will let the Republicans get in their investigations.