Border encounters reach nearly 2.5 million for 2023, second straight record-setting year for illegal immigration under Biden
United States Customs and Border Protection reported the final month of southwest border encounters for fiscal year 2023, revealing yet another record-setting month and year under the Biden administration.
Official numbers totaled 269,735 encounters for September 2023, a new monthly record, which sets fiscal year 2023 at a record-setting 2,475,669.
The yearly total eclipses 2022's record encounters by nearly 100,000, marking yet another terrible year for President Biden's border control.
Previous reports that had estimated approximately 260,000 people crossing the border in September 2023 proved to be true. This exceeded the previous monthly record set under Biden in December 2022 at just over 250,000.
At the time, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claimed the president had taken "historic action" to control illegal immigration, the Washington Examiner reported. "The president has worked very hard to implement a strategy, when it comes to the border, that is humane, safe, and has orderly enforcement," she added.
Days later, the administration announced its plans to resume building the U.S.-Mexico border wall started under President Trump, despite Biden claiming that walls don't work. Biden also defied his previous landmark 2020 statement that "not another foot" of the border wall would be built.
In August 2020, Joe Biden declared "there will not be another foot of wall constructed in my administration."
The Biden admin has now approved finishing Trump's wall in Arizona. pic.twitter.com/MftztFkdL5
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) July 29, 2022
By comparison, both 2023 and 2022 fiscal years under President Biden saw more border encounters than the entirety of President Trump's term combined.
These last two record-setting years under President Biden even combined for nearly 1.5 million more border encounters than the entire eight years of Barack Obama's presidency, historical data shows.
Before Biden, it had been more than 13 years since an administration had a million illegal border crossings. It had also been more than 20 years since 1.6 million yearly border encounters. In fact, the record for yearly border encounters set under the Reagan administration in 1986 made it 35 years until it was broken under Biden's rule.
“This fiscal year may have ended, but the historic crisis at our southwest border sparked by Secretary Mayorkas’ policies rages on," said House Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green.
According to the Washington Examiner, a total of 3.2 million non-U.S. citizens attempted to enter the country illegally in fiscal year 2023.
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