Border crossings in November fell to lowest level of Biden’s term
The sharp drop in illegal crossings is due to stronger enforcement by both the United States and Mexico, U.S. officials and analysts say.
December 19, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. EST
By Nick Miroff
Illegal crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border have continued to drop through the last several months of President Joe Biden’s term, with the number of migrants stopped by Border Patrol agents falling in November to 46,610, according to data published Thursday.
The November figure is the lowest one-month total tallied by U.S. Customs and Border Protection since Biden took office. It represents a 78 percent decline from the 207,680 encounters CBP reported in November 2023.
President-elect DonaldTrump’s win in November triggered speculation among lawmakers that U.S. agents would face a rush of migrants attempting to cross before the new administration took office. But border numbers have continued on a downward trend and are now at levels below the last several months of Trump’s first term.
“The border that the incoming administration is inheriting is a border at which the number of encounters is well below the number of encounters in 2019,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said during an interview Wednesday.
The sharp drop in illegal crossings is mainly the result of two factors, U.S. officials and analysts say. Mexican authorities have interdicted record numbers of migrants attempting to reach the United States, and Biden officials implemented new rules last summer effectively barring asylum claims by border crossers who arrive illegally.
Trump ran for office this year claiming the southern border was out of control. During the first three years of Biden’s term, illegal crossings averaged 2 million per year, the highest levels ever recorded.
The abrupt drop-off this year came too late to benefit Biden politically, and exit polls of Republican voters ranked border security as a top issue for Trump supporters.
Trump has pledged to “close” the border when he takes office Jan. 20 and launch the largest mass deportation campaign in U.S. history. His chief immigration advisers say they will bring back the “Remain in Mexico” policy, which requires asylum seekers to wait outside U.S. territory while their humanitarian claims are processed in U.S. courts. Biden ended that program and other Trump enforcement measures when he took office in January 2021.
Trump advisers have not said whether they plan to leave in place Biden’s asylum restrictions, which are even more rigid than “Remain in Mexico,” because they do not allow migrants to initiate a humanitarian claim.
Biden officials say the measures are part of a more balanced border management strategy that has dramatically expanded opportunities for migrants to apply for legal entry to the United States. Trump has pledged to scrap those programs when he takes office.
This article was originally published by The Washington Post.