CBP Apprehended Over 221K Unauthorized Immigrants at the Southern Border in March, Surpassing 22-Year Old Record

What’s the story?

• Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released data on Monday revealing that apprehensions of people entering the U.S. illegally at the Southern border reached a new 22-year high in March, which keeps fiscal year 2022 on track to surpass the all-time record of apprehensions set in fiscal year 2021.
• CBP apprehended 221,303 unauthorized immigrants at the Southern border in March, which exceeds the previous record of 220,063 in March 2000 and is a significant increase from the 165,894 apprehended a month ago. These figures exclude the number of “gotaways” whom CBP was unable to detain or who entered the U.S. undetected.
• Over the first six months of FY2022, CBP has encountered 1,060,954 people attempting to enter the country illegally. That puts FY2022 on pace to exceed the 1,734,686 apprehended in FY2021, which was an all-time record. Additionally, March was the 14th consecutive month with at least 101,000 apprehensions at the Southern border.
• The number of unaccompanied minors apprehended in March was 14,167 ― an increase from 11,984 in February that brings the total for the first six months of FY2022 to 73,495 unaccompanied minors apprehended. If the current pace continues, it would approach the all-time record total of unaccompanied minors apprehended at the Southern border in a fiscal year, which was 146,925 in FY2021.
• The CBP chart below shows the total number of monthly border apprehensions from the current fiscal year, which currently has six complete months of data, compared to monthly totals from the three preceding fiscal years:

• Nearly all of the CBP sectors at the Southern border saw an increase in the number of monthly apprehensions in March 2022 compared to a year ago. Yuma experienced the largest relative increase from 11,882 in March 2021 to 29,707 this year ― a 150% spike. Del Rio experienced the largest increase in absolute terms with a year-over-year increase of 21,569 from 20,052 in March 2021 to 41,621 in March 2022, a 107.6% increase. Only two sectors experienced declines in March 2022 compared to a year ago: Rio Grande Valley went from 62,685 to 44,073 (-29.7) and Big Bend went from 4,500 to 3,653 (-18.8%).
• According to CBP’s latest figures for the Southern border, the agency has conducted life-saving search and rescue efforts 8,076 times in FY2022 to date and 1,446 of those occurred in March. The current pace would eclipse the 12,833 search and rescue missions performed by CBP at the Southern border in FY2021. 
• About half of all unauthorized immigrants encountered at the Southern border in March were processed for expulsion under the CDC’s Title 42 public health order, which the Biden administration is planning to end on May 23rd despite bipartisan concern about the potential for border crossings to further accelerate. Officials from the Dept. of Homeland Security have estimated that there may be up to 18,000 illegal border crossings per day if Title 42 is lifted, which would be a dramatic increase from the average of 7,138 apprehensions per day in March. 
• CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus said, “While we may likely see an increase in encounters after the CDC’s Title 42 Public Health Order is terminated on May 23rd, CBP continues to execute this Administration’s comprehensive strategy to safely, orderly, and humanely manage our border.”

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• Biden Admin's Decision to End Use of Title 42 at the Southern Border Draws Bipartisan Criticism (4/15/22)

— Eric Revell

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