Photo: John Moore / Getty Images News / Getty Images
The Biden Administration held back December’s border numbers, and now we know why. They were historically bad.
More than 302,000 non-U.S. citizens were stopped when they attempted to enter the United States last month, including those who walked across without permission, lacked proper documents to pass through ports of entry, or were paroled in from abroad, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data released Friday evening. The previous record of 341,392 was set in August 2023.
Border Patrol agents recorded nearly 250,000 illegal immigrants breaching the southern border, and another 52,249 unauthorized migrants showed up demanding entry at border crossings from Mexico.
Most of the remainder came through legal crossings from Canada or flew into airports — many were under a legally iffy immigration “parole” program DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas created for people from countries like Venezuela and Cuba. That makes the total at the entire border for December 371,000
The record-breaking numbers also come on the eve of House GOP efforts to impeach Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for his handling of the border crisis.
“Secretary Mayorkas has outdone himself yet again — never have we seen such catastrophic numbers, even with historically high encounter numbers on his watch. December’s numbers serve as more undeniable proof that Secretary Mayorkas must be impeached,” House Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green (R-TN) said in a statement. “This is intentional, and it is a disaster.”
Green will introduce articles of impeachment against Mayorkas on Tuesday. He has not revealed the specific charges that he plans to charge Mayorkas with but held several hearings focused on how Mayorkas was derelict in his duties, though dereliction is not a high crime or misdemeanor.
The federal statistics revealed that 371,036 immigrants were encountered nationwide in December. Of that figure, Border Patrol agents arrested 251,222 for illegally entering the country nationwide, including 249,785 from Mexico, 1,178 coming in from Canada, and others apprehended on the coasts.