WASHINGTON — Arrests for illegally crossing the border with Mexico fell 33% in July to the lowest level since September 2020, as asylum officials temporarily suspended asylum, authorities said Friday.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the parent agency of the Border Patrol, the Border Patrol made 56,408 arrests last month, down from 83,536 arrests in June.
Asylum was stopped at the border on June 5 as arrests for illegal border crossings surpassed the 2,500-a-day threshold, though a lack of deportation flights prevents authorities from turning everyone away. U.S. officials say arrests fell 55% after the measure, which follows a steep drop earlier this year that was widely attributed to Mexican authorities step up enforcement within their borders.
“In July, our border security measures increased our ability to impose sanctions on illegal entry,” said Acting CBP Commissioner Troy Miller.
The numbers that were roughly in line with preliminary estimatescould give Democrats some breathing room on an issue that has plagued them throughout Joe Biden’s presidency.
“The Biden-Harris administration has taken effective action, and Republicans continue to do nothing,” said White House spokesman Angelo Fernández Hernández.
More than 38,000 people were admitted to border crossings through an online appointment system called CBP One. Since its introduction in January 2023, the total number of people admitted has reached more than 765,000.
More than 520,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela were admitted through July under a separate policy that allowed people from those four countries to apply online with a financial sponsor and show up at an airport. Permits have recently been discontinued due to concerns about fraud by sponsors.
“(The Department of Homeland Security) is working to resume processing applications as quickly as possible, with appropriate safeguards in place,” CBP said in a statement.
US Congressman Mark Green, Republican chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, criticized the Biden administration’s new and expanded legal pathways at the border.
“This administration is orchestrating a massive game of deception, encouraging otherwise inadmissible aliens to cross the border at the crossings instead of the border crossings, creating a facade of improved optics for the administration, but in reality placing an ever-increasing burden on our communities,” he said.