The number of foreign nationals attempting to cross into the U.S. illegally continued to surge at both American land borders throughout the month of November, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.
Nationwide border encounters in fiscal year 2021 (October 2020- September 2021) totaled 1,956,519, in FY 2022 jumped to 2,766,582, and rose again in FY 2023 to a yearly total of 3,201,144.
The vast majority of those “encounters” result in the migrant(s) being released into the interior of the country with a future immigration court date.
Encounters at the southwest land border with Mexico increased drastically from 1,734,686 in FY 2021 to 2,378,944 in FY 2022. Total encounters on the Mexican border modestly rose to 2,475,669 in FY 2023.
While the national spotlight has focused on the illegal immigration crisis at the southern border, migrant encounters at the northern border with Canada have grown at an alarming rate.
Encounters at the northern border totaled 27,180 in FY 2021, more than tripled to 109,535 in FY 2022, and increased to 189,402 in FY 2023.
Total encounters in the first two months of FY 2024 totaled 29,454 — more than all the encounters for the entire 2021 fiscal year.
As migrants increasingly attempt to cross illegally over America’s northern border, more incidents on the border and in border towns have occured.
Just last November, 20 Romanian citizens were caught by Customs and Border Patrol agents after crossing the border illegally into Hodgdon Maine.
More than 169 individuals on the U.S. terrorism watchlist were arrested at the border in the fiscal year ending in October, raising the question of how many crossed but were not arrested.
