U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released its latest report Tuesday, showing illegal crossings remained low and flat through September, though nearly 1.4 million migrants have been allowed to enter the country lawfully under two controversial Biden-Harris administration programs in less than two years.
What is likely the final monthly update before Election Day, the CBP dropped its operational statistics on Tuesday for fiscal year 2024, which includes September 2024’s monthly operational update.
“During Fiscal Year 2024, CBP significantly increased its enforcement efforts and realized a substantial decrease in southwest border encounters, “Troy A. Miller, Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Commissioner said. “CBP continued to identify and respond to new threats posed by the transnational criminal organizations profiting from the exploitation of vulnerable people, taking unprecedented measures to dismantle and disrupt these operations. We have surged our enforcement efforts to further crack down on the smuggling of illicit opioids, including fentanyl, and implementing new measures to disrupt the supply chain of deadly narcotics.”
The report credits a proclamation issued by President Biden on June 5 to secure the southern border for what it called a “meaningful decrease in unlawful border crossings – including a more than 55% decrease in encounters between ports of entry along the southwest border.”
CBP also said in the report that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) removed or returned over 160,000 individuals to over 145 countries between June 5 and the end of September. During the same period, the report noted, U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operated more than 495 international repatriation flights.
CBP also touted CBP One, a government mobile app for migrants seeking asylum at the southern border. The same app has drawn scrutiny for its lack of vetting migrants.
Between January 2023 and the end of September 2024, over 852,000 individuals successfully scheduled appointments at ports of entry, the report notes.
The top nationalities of those who were processed with an appointment made through the app were Venezuelan, Cuban, Mexican and Haitian.
Through the end of September 2024, over 531,000 nationals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela (CHNV) arrived lawfully on commercial flights and were granted parole under the process.
Specifically, the program processed over 111,000 Cubans, nearly 214,000 Haitians, over 96,000 Nicaraguans, and nearly 121,000 Venezuelans.
The program was first implemented for Venezuelans in October 2022, and extended to other nationalities in January 2023. It allows migrants to use the CBP One app to enter the U.S. on temporary parole for two years and receive a work permit if they pass background checks and have a sponsor. It was part of the Biden-Harris administration’s expansion of “lawful pathways” to tackle the border crisis.
The program has received furious opposition from Republicans, some of whom have described the administration as running migrant flights, but under this program, migrants must organize their own travel. Republicans said the program was an abuse of parole, which is limited to a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.
Earlier this month, the Biden-Harris administration said it would not extend the legal status of hundreds of thousands of migrants who came to the U.S. through the CHNV program that was halted earlier this year because of discoveries of fraud in the program.
The White House issued a statement about CBP’s latest report.
“The data published today by U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows that since the President announced new executive actions to secure the border on June 4, unlawful border crossings have dropped by more than 55% to the lowest levels in over four years,” White House Spokesperson Angelo Fernández Hernández said. “Encounters between ports of entry are lower than they were during the last several months of the previous Administration.”
Hernández continued to defend the statistics while pointing fingers at Republicans.
“For months, the Biden-Harris Administration worked with a bipartisan group of Senators to craft a historic bipartisan border security agreement that would have added thousands of frontline personnel to the border – but Congressional Republicans voted against that agreement twice – proving that they are more interested in cynically playing politics than securing the border,” he said. “The Biden-Harris Administration has taken effective action, and Republican officials continue to do nothing.”
Fox News’ Adam Shaw and Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report.
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