The Border Patrol encountered nearly 200,000 illegal aliens nationwide in October, the first month of fiscal year 2024, according to preliminary federal data obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
From Oct. 1 through the morning of Nov. 2, the Border Patrol recorded 197,300 encounters nationwide, according to the internal preliminary data obtained by the DCNF. That number puts the U.S. on track to possibly see another record year of illegal immigration, former Chief Patrol Agent of the Yuma sector in Arizona Chris Clem told the DCNF of the data. (RELATED: Number Of Migrants That Got In After Crossing Border Illegally in Fiscal 2023 Surpasses Populations In 11 States)
Internal Border Patrol data exclusively obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation
“That is putting us again on trajectory to have another record setting year and seasonal immigration trends have been blown out of water,” Clem told the DCNF.
In both fiscal year 2022 and fiscal year 2023, the Border Patrol recorded more than 2 million encounters of migrants crossing into the U.S. illegally, according to federal data.
In October 2019, there were only 36,040 nationwide encounters with illegal immigrants. In October 2020, it was 69,223. In October 2021, it was 159,652; and in October 2022, it was 206,902.
Credit: Juan Mendoza
“We have to secure the border, we have to make sure that the men and women of the Border Patrol have what they need to do their job and we need policies and consequences for those that cross illegally. And then we support all this by making sure we have better legal pathways so people don’t have to come illegally and those that do when you have good legal pathways should face an immediate consequence to include removal,” Clem added.
A Customs and Border Protection (CBP) spokesperson told the DCNF that the agency will publicly publish October data “later this month as is our typical protocol,” adding that “The November data will be released in December.”
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