Illegal crossings at southern border since Title 42 down 44%, lowest in two years

The number of immigrants arrested for attempting to cross the border illegally has dropped off significantly in the weeks since the Biden administration rescinded public health policy Title 42, according to government statistics.

Illegal immigrant arrests dropped 44% between the six weeks leading up to May 11, when the policy expired, and the six weeks afterward.

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American Immigration Council Policy Director Aaron Reichlin-Melnick said the lower numbers over the past month and a half are on par with the number of apprehensions federal law enforcement recorded early on in the Biden administration.

“Since the end of Title 42, border crossings have stabilized at ~4,000 a day (give or take 10%), which would put June around the February 2021 level, the lowest month of Biden’s presidency,” Reichlin-Melnick wrote in a tweet.

The Border Patrol apprehended approximately 160,000 people in the six weeks since May 12. Agents have averaged between 13,000 and 29,000 arrests each week since then.

Border Patrol recorded approximately 285,000 arrests in the six weeks leading up to May 11, when agents made between 34,000 and 68,000 weekly arrests.

Despite the continued downturn in arrests, some Republican lawmakers said the numbers have been manipulated to appear lower than they are and that the United States still faces a “crisis” at the border even at the new lower levels.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) told Fox News last week that the southern border was facing an “invasion” and that “it’s never been remotely this bad.”

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-TN) has also been critical of the Department of Homeland Security and accused it of encouraging immigrants not to enter illegally but rather to go to ports of entry to meet with customs officials.

Although surrendering at ports to seek asylum is what DHS leaders in the Trump administration had called for immigrants to do, Green has argued in recent weeks that the Biden administration is paroling in immigrants who would otherwise have crossed illegally and that DHS’s broad use of the parole mechanism is an abuse because it was never meant to be used for thousands of people.

“[Biden] is using the CBP One app to actually mask the number so [when someone] comes to the border, [Border Patrol is] telling [immigrants] to voluntarily return to Mexico, fill out the app, and then come in and they’re immediately released,” Green said in a Fox News interview last week. “They’re getting them paroled into the United States, against the laws, against the Immigration and Naturalization Act. So those numbers are hidden in another count. So the numbers aren’t going down. That’s a shell game from [Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas].”

Of the 272,000 people encountered nationwide by federal police in May, 170,000 attempted to enter illegally between the ports and 102,000 went to a port of entry, including fewer than 30,000 people who obtained appointments with customs officers.

Immigrants who obtain appointments at ports may be paroled into the country. But fewer than 30,000 people were granted appointments in all of May, which does not mean they were paroled into the country.

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Even if the nearly 30,000 had crossed illegally, the number of Border Patrol arrests would have been just below 200,000 for the month, making it lower than seven previous months under Biden, when Border Patrol caught more than 200,000 people per month.

In addition, the 30,000 appointments do not equate to the number of people released on parole into the U.S.; it only indicates how many immigrants had appointments.