“The new border enforcement measures kept February’s overall encounter numbers nearly even with January,” Miller said.
“We are also encouraged by the new functionality in the CBP One mobile application, which has provided migrants the ability to safely and easily schedule an appointment at a Port of Entry to request a humanitarian exception to the Title 42 public health order.”
He went on to say the app removes “smugglers” from the process and “decreases migrant exploitation.”
CBP emphasized that enforcement encounters in January and February were at the lowest they’ve been since the beginning of the Biden administration. The agency continued to point to the policies outlined by the White House in early January, including admitting 30,000 foreign nationals from a handful of countries and enforcing consequences for those who engage in “irregular migration.”
Two of every three encounters on the southwestern U.S. border were with single adults, the agency indicated. 47 percent were expelled under the Title 42 public health order, which is likely to expire in May when the federal government ends its COVID-19 emergency measures.
Border police arrested 128,877 illegal immigrants between ports of entry in February, including 74,833 in the sectors of Big Bend, Del Rio, El Paso, Laredo, and Rio Grande. The encounters in Texas sectors dropped by only 4 percent compared to January. Encounters in the El Paso sector jumped 7 percent.
According to CBP statistics, there were 56 percent more arrests between ports of entry last month of this year compared to February 2022. However, there was a decrease by the same percentage in the Rio Grande sector.
In February, border guards in Texas also encountered 16,419 illegal immigrants at the El Paso and Laredo ports of entry.
###
Disclosure: Unlike almost every other media outlet, The Texan is not beholden to any special interests, does not apply for any type of state or federal funding, and relies exclusively on its readers for financial support. If you’d like to become one of the people we’re financially accountable to, click here to subscribe.
Hayden Sparks
Hayden Sparks is a senior reporter for The Texan and a lifelong resident of the Lone Star State. He has coached competitive speech and debate and has been involved in politics since a young age. One of Hayden's favorite quotes is by Sam Houston: "Texas has yet to learn submission to any oppression, come from what source it may."
