Southern Border Apprehensions in August Topped 208K, Remained Near 21-Year High

What’s the story?

• U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Wednesday released its operational statistics for the month of August, which was the sixth consecutive month in which apprehensions of people attempting to enter the country illegally continued at levels unseen in 21 years.
• CBP apprehended 208,887 unauthorized immigrants at the Southern border in August. That’s a slight decrease from July, when there were 212,672 apprehensions ― the most in a single month since 220,063 in March 2000.
• The number of border apprehensions in August was a slight decrease from 212,672 in July; but still significantly higher than the 188,829 in June; 180,034 in May; 178,854 in April; and 173,337 in March. It is the only six-month period dating back to at least fiscal year 2000 in which CBP enforcement actions exceeded 170,000 each month.
• The month of August pushed the number of CBP enforcement actions to 1,541,651 in FY2021 to date (with one month remaining in the fiscal year). That figure already exceeds the 977,509 apprehensions in FY2019.
• The number of unaccompanied minors apprehended on the Southern border in August was 18,847 ― which ranks as third largest monthly total behind 18,962 in July 2021 and 18,890 in March 2021.
• The CBP chart below compares the total number of monthly border apprehensions from the last three fiscal years to the current year, which has been higher than the preceding years in each of the nine months of the fiscal year to date (FY2021 runs from October 1, 2020, to September 30, 2021):

• According to CBP’s latest figures for the Southern border, the agency has conducted life-saving search and rescue efforts 11,406 times in the eleven months of FY2021 to date ― more than the past two full fiscal years combined (4,920 in FY2019 and 5,071 in FY2020). 

— Eric Revell

(Photo Credit: CBP Office of Public Affairs photo by Kris Grogan via Flickr / Public Domain)