The number of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border without authorization plunged last month to its lowest level since the start of the Biden Administration, according to U.S. Border Patrol.
Border Patrol agents recorded just more than 100,000 apprehensions in June, a nearly 60% decrease from 169,000 in May.
It was in May that the Biden Administration began a policy of denying asylum to migrants who show up at the southern border without first applying online or seeking protection in a country they passed through.
That crackdown was announced one day before the end of Title 42, the pandemic era health policy that allowed for expulsions of migrants at the border, alongside the end of the Covid-19 national public health emergency.
On May 14 Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas remarked that U.S.-Mexico border crossings had dropped by 50% in just the handful of days since the Title 42 policy had ended.
Even so, the number of unlawful border entries remains high compared to pre-Covid levels. The last time Border Patrol apprehensions along the U.S.-Mexico border were lower was in February 2021, President Biden’s first full month in office.
The fiscal year 2022 had seen a record number of border encounters—apprehensions and expulusions—of nearly 2.4 million, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, though it’s unclear how many of those were repeat crossers.
