Democrat President Joe Biden’s administration finally released the December numbers for illegal border crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border, which showed a dramatic uptick compared to previous years.
“The number of unique individuals encountered in December 2021 was 135,040, a 5 percent increase in the number of unique individuals encountered the prior month,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said in a statement. “In total, there were 178,840 encounters along the Southwest land border in December, a 2 percent increase compared to November.”
The 178,840 illegal border crossings for December 2021 was higher than the December totals from 2020, 2019, and 2018 combined when there was a total of 175,353 illegal border crossings.
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CBP FINALLY released December 2021 numbers for illegal crossings along the southern border: 178,840.
That's more than Decembers 2018, 2019, & 2020 COMBINED. pic.twitter.com/NVRH2rZoqr
— Mark Bednar (@MarkBednar) January 24, 2022
Mark Morgan, former acting CBP commissioner and Heritage visiting fellow, responded to the news in a statement, saying, “More than a year ago, even as Joe Biden was preparing to roll back President Donald Trump’s effective border security policies, he claimed he did not want to end up with ‘two million people on our border.’ After a year on the job, it’s undeniable that Biden has failed even by his own basic measure.”
“In 12 months, CBP recorded more than two million encounters along the southwest border, a shocking and historic number,” Morgan added. “But that number does not include an estimated 600,000 or more ‘got-aways,’ individuals who cross the border illegally but which Border Patrol is unable to detain. And then there are the ‘turn-backs,’ those who make an effort to cross the border but eventually give up and return to their country of origin. Under Biden, that number was around 400,000. Under Joe Biden, more than three million people have tried to violate America’s sovereignty and illegally enter our country. This is not only the worst border crisis in American history—it’s the worst 12 months for any president when it comes to border security.”
Former acting ICE director Tom Homan said during an interview accused Biden’s border policies to contributing to deaths along the southern border. Homan’s remarks came after a Texas Department of Public Safety officer was killed during a U.S. Border Patrol incident over the weekend.
“Prayers out to Special Agent Salas and his family, it’s always tragic to lose one of the finest,” he said. “But look, I’ve said it many times before: people want to beat up on President Trump, but his [Biden’s] immigration policies are inhumane. Let me be clear when President Trump pushed illegal immigration to a 35, 40 year low, depending on how much you look at illegal immigration… it was down 83%. That saves lives because the most vulnerable people will not make that journey if they know they won’t succeed.”
“And Joe Biden comes in office, destroys all his policies. And what’s the result? Under President Trump last year, there was a total of 254 migrants died crossing that border —the first year under President Biden, that is more than doubled to 557,” he added. “That’s a 119% increase… Add to that over 100,000 overdose deaths, most of it from fentanyl that the DEA says, ‘come across the border.’ Add to that 59 CBP officers who die from COVID because Joe Biden is ignoring Title 42 when it comes to hundreds of thousands of children and family groups to come across with COVID, that affects these agents. So let me tell you something, Joe Biden’s policies are not humane. It’s killing people at a huge rate – more than I’ve ever seen in my career. ”