U.S. border officials recorded the highest daily number of encounters with illegal immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border on Monday, surpassing all previous records set during the Biden administration’s tenure.
Internal data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Tuesday revealed that federal law enforcement encountered 14,509 immigrants at the southern border on Monday.
The majority of these encounters involved immigrants who circumvented the port of entry and entered the country illegally, with a smaller percentage attempting entry through the port but being denied admission. Last week’s record, set at 12,000 encounters, was eclipsed by this recent surge. If the rate of 14,509 arrests per day were sustained for a month, it would result in over 435,000 immigrant arrests.
Representative Tony Gonzales (R-TX), whose district spans 800 miles along the 2,000-mile border, expressed deep concern about the situation in his region, describing it as “all very sad.”
Gonzales suggested that the ongoing decline in Eagle Pass, Texas, a border town that witnessed 2,500 immigrant arrests on Sunday, could be influenced by the Biden administration’s response.
On Monday, border officials in the Eagle Pass-Del Rio region encountered 3,100 illegal immigrants, while the Tucson region in Arizona saw encounters with 3,089 people.