U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) said Friday that migrant encounters along the southwest border fell to their lowest level in four years last month.
“In July, Border Patrol agents recorded 56,408 encounters between ports of entry along the southwest border,” CBP said in a news release. “This is the lowest monthly total since September 2020.”
Friday’s press release follows an executive action taken by President Biden in June to ban migrants from crossing the southern border illegally during periods of high-volume encounters.
“Our border security measures have strengthened our ability to prosecute illegal entry, resulting in the lowest number of encounters along our southwest border in three years,” CBP Acting Commissioner Troy Miller said in a statement last month.
“We are working closely with our international partners to pursue international criminal organizations that trade in chaos and put profit over human life, and this month we announced enhanced enforcement efforts to attack the fentanyl supply chain,” Miller continued. “These efforts are paying off. Just a few weeks ago, CBP witnessed the largest fentanyl seizure in our agency’s history. We remain vigilant in these efforts alongside our partners.”
Friday’s press release comes after months of conflict along the southern border, where bipartisan border security legislation was twice defeated in the Senate last year.
Former President Trump called the border bill a “death wish for Republicans” in February.
“Only an idiot or a radical left-wing Democrat would vote for this horrible border bill. This bill would only allow us to close our borders if there are 5,000 contacts per day, and we have the right to close our borders right now. It has to happen,” the former president told Truth Social about the bill.
