Record number of migrants seen at southern border last month

A record number of migrant encounters occurred at the southern border in the month of September, data released by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) found.

There were a total of 269,735 encounters at the southern border, CBP found, bringing the total for 2023 to 2.47 million.

Migrant encounters were up slightly from the month before, with 232,963 recorded instances in August. There were more migrant encounters in Sept. 2023 than any month in the fiscal year of 2022, CBP data shows.

“In response to high rates of encounters across the southwest border in September, CBP surged resources and personnel,” Troy Miller, a senior official, said in a statement. “CBP will continue to remain vigilant, making operational adjustments as necessary and enforcing consequences under U.S. immigration law.”

A majority of the migrants crossing the southern border are single adults. There were a total of 1.6 million single adult crossings recorded in the 2022 fiscal year (FY). As of Oct. 13, 2023, there were 1.5 million single adult crossings this year.

So far in 2023, there have been more recorded “individuals in a family unit” at the southern border than in all of FY 2022. One-third of recorded encounters in FY 2023 are individuals in a family unit, while in 2022 this group made up 23 percent of the annual encounters.

In an address to the nation Thursday, President Biden announced he would be requesting $100 billion in emergency aid for the southern border and international allies facing crises.

“The supplemental funding request announced yesterday would provide critically needed additional resources including additional CBP agents and officers to support our essential missions: from border and migration management, to countering fentanyl and keeping dangerous drugs out of our communities,” Miller’s statement said.