‘Catastrophic’: Biden Admin Releases April Southern Border Encounter Numbers

Customs and Border Protection said on Wednesday that it had recorded more than 179,000 encounters at the southern border in April as thousands of illegal immigrants continue to be released into the country. 

According to the CBP numbers, Border Patrol recorded more than 128,900 encounters with foreign nationals between ports of entry along the southern border in April. At the same time, it had 41,100 encounters with individuals who used the app created by the Biden administration to be processed at a port of entry into the United States. The encounters were down from last month’s 189,357 and April 2023’s 211,992. 

“We are still experiencing challenges along the borders and the nation’s immigration system is not appropriately resourced to handle them, so we continue to call on Congress to take action that would provide our personnel with additional resources and tools,” said acting CBP Commissioner Troy Miller. 

CBP also said that cocaine seizures at the border had increased 95% since March and that the agency has confiscated 11,400 pounds of fentanyl so far in fiscal year 2024. 

While Miller highlighted the dip in encounters, House Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green (R-TN) said that the number was still too high. 

“These numbers make one thing clear — we are still in a crisis of the Biden administration’s making,” Green said in a statement. “Going from ‘absolutely catastrophic’ in December to just ‘catastrophic’ in April may be acceptable for Secretary Mayorkas and President Biden, but no one else.”

Green also criticized parole programs adopted by the Biden administration that allow inadmissible aliens to enter the United States. 

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“The fundamentals of this unprecedented homeland security crisis are all the same: illegal aliens know they will likely be released if they cross between ports of entry, and record numbers continue flocking to our ports of entry to take advantage of the Biden administration’s unlawful mass-parole programs,” Green added. 

The numbers also come as Fox News obtained the number of known illegal immigrant “gotaways” who made it into the United States. According to the numbers, gotaways have exploded under President Joe Biden with more than 600,000 in fiscal years 2022 and 2023.

From fiscal year 2010 to 2020, there were about 1.4 million known gotaways, while there were 1.6 million recorded from fiscal year 2021 to 2024.