US Border Patrol apprehended more than 200,000 illegal aliens at the southern border with Mexico in August, a Department of Homeland Security official told Fox News on Wednesday.
Customs and Border Protection agents encountered 208,887 illegal aliens in August, a two percent decrease from the more than 212,000 illegal aliens that agents processed in July.
Upon taking office, President Joe Biden scrapped former President Donald Trump‘s border-security practices, including the Remain in Mexico policy, which caused a historic 317 percent surge in apprehensions of illegal aliens from August 2020 to August 2021.
Border Patrol agents arrested about 50,000 illegal aliens in August 2020 and 62,707 in August 2019.
Trump’s policies kept encounters with illegal aliens relatively low—given that he had to secure a border that Congress and past presidents had neglected for decades.
The Supreme Court ruled in August that the Biden administration must continue the Remain in Mexico policy, which should cause a gradual reduction in illegal alien apprehensions.
As encounters and arrests increase, so do the number of illegal aliens that slip into the American interior without detection.
The Biden administration also releases many illegal aliens into the American interior with notices to appear in court, but few show up for their court date and fewer face eventual deportation.
Biden’s open-border policies attract criminals, repeat border crossers, and single adults who want to improve their economic position or send remittances to their families outside the United States.
Of the nearly 209,000 apprehensions at the southern border, 49 percent were single adults, a 7 percent decrease from July.
Border Patrol agents encountered 86,487 families—though many illegal aliens fake family associations for easier access into America—and 18,847 children without parents or guardians.
The Biden administration immediately deported 44 percent of the illegal aliens under the Trump-enacted and Biden-extended Title 42 public health order, which gives CBP emergency powers to protect the nation from COVID-19.
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the Biden administration has a plan to stem illegal immigration and create “safe, legal and orderly pathways for migrants.”
“We have a plan, we are executing our plan and that takes time,” said Mayorkas, who called the current crisis “unsustainable.”
“We can’t continue like this, our people in the field can’t continue and our system isn’t built for it,” he said.
