The number of illegal immigrants entering America reached the second-highest level in history last month, according to statistics released by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
In all, 188,829 people illegally crossed the U.S. border with Mexico during the month of June, a 5% increase over May. That means that June saw the second-largest monthly number of illegal entries in history, behind March 2000, when CBP apprehended 220,063 illegal immigrants.
More than 1 million illegal immigrants have entered the U.S. during this fiscal year, which began in October. That’s the first time the U.S. has crossed that threshold since 2006.
The number of illegal entries has increased every month since President Joe Biden’s inauguration. “If the current apprehension trajectory continues, CBP will have encountered more than 1 million illegal immigrants at the southern border by late July – when Biden reaches his six month mark in office,” reported the Daily Mail.
The spike in June border crossings casts doubt on President Joe Biden’s claim that the surging number of illegal border entries was part of the regular “seasonal” increase that takes place every winter and spring.
There is nothing seasonal about a spike in June. Summer caravans prove perilous for migrants, as temperatures regularly exceed 100 degrees, and human smugglers often abandon the weakest members of their caravans in forbidding or remote parts of the desert.
The number of illegal border entries has only increased between the months of May and June twice in the twenty-first century: in 2017, when illegal border crossings were rebounding from record lows following the election of President Donald Trump, and in 2021.
The summer increase has required more U.S. resources to save lives. The CBP has sent out 9,500 rescue missions to save people trying to enter the United States illegally in Fiscal Year 2021, 81% higher than last year.
The number of unaccompanied minors spiked to 15,253 encounters in June, an 8% increase from the 14,137 unaccompanied minors CBP encountered in May.
Biden administration policies have seemingly convinced migrants to continue trying to enter the U.S. illegally until they are successful. The number of illegal immigrants caught trying to entering the U.S. for the second time more than doubled, from 14% in normal years (2014-2019) to 34% so far in 2020.
House Republicans on the Oversight & Reform Committee released a report on Tuesday highlighting Biden administration policies that they believe signal the U.S. border is open.
“After bold steps taken by President Trump stemmed the flow of illegal migrants coming to the United States, the Biden Administration has not only reversed course on measures seeking to stop the influx of border crossings but has instituted permissive policies and incentivized immigration through non-legal channels,” it says.
The report notes that President Biden announced a 100-day freeze on deportations and lifted a policy requiring migrants to “stay-in-Mexico” until their court hearings are adjudicated. He also reversed a series of asylum agreements that President Trump had signed with nations in Central America. Republicans also noted that President Biden essentially reinstated “catch-and-release” and has stopped building the wall on the southern border.
Yet President Biden seems far from finished loosening U.S. immigration policy. Administration officials have announced the president is considering repealing a measure that protects U.S. citizens from infectious diseases like COVID-19. Title 42 allows immigration enforcement agents to expel illegal immigrants during times of widespread contagious disease. Already, 33 CBP employees have died from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, and 8,900 have contracted the coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic.
Arizona State Attorney General Mark Brnovich warned President Biden of the consequences of his decision in a letter written on Friday. “Ending Title 42 would undermine your Administration’s entire public health rationale,” he wrote. “For months, you have been telling the American people to not gather in large groups unless they are vaccinated and wearing masks. Yet you are allowing mass groups of migrants to cross our border and gather in congregate care facilities, many of whom originate from Central American countries lacking adequate COVID-19 testing and vaccination programs.”
The numerical impact of repealing Title 42 would also be enormous. In all, agents invoked Title 42 to expel 217,000 of the 369,000 illegal immigrants apprehended over the last two months for health reasons.