December broke records for migrant encounters at the southern border, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confirmed on Friday, as it released numbers showing that there were a record 302,000 migrant encounters at the southern border.
The Friday afternoon release, which showed 302,034 encounters in December, comes more than three weeks since Fox reported that there were over 302,000 encounters — which breaks the monthly record set in September and is the first time the number has ever breached the 300,000 mark.
It’s enough people to fill the Las Vegas Super Bowl more than four and a half times, and is nearly the total population of Cincinnati. Of the encounters, nearly 250,000 were between ports of entry.
It’s the latest staggering numbers to come from the southern border since the crisis exploded in 2021. There were over 2.4 million migrant encounters in FY 23, after a record-setting FY 22.
The numbers do not include “gotaways” of which there have been estimates of over 800,000 in FY 23, or migrants who are paroled in through the Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan (CHNV) parole program — which allows 30,000 migrants to fly directly in each month as part of the Biden administration’s “expanded lawful pathways.”
“This staggering number of encounters at our borders only happens by design and a willful refusal to comply with the laws passed by Congress,” he said. “The harsh reality is that this secretary has intentionally opened our borders, sending a clear message worldwide: entering this country illegally means release into the interior, with little to no chance of removal—and the world has responded accordingly. This is intentional, and it is a disaster.