The Biden administration had the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency drop the November report of border encounters with illegal migrants in a Friday evening release just before the Christmas holiday weekend. The release, which appears to have been timed to receive the least media attention possible, shows that illegal migrant encounters set a new record last month.
CBP said there were 233,740 encounters with illegal immigrants at the southern border in November, marking a 1% increase over October.
BREAKING: In a blatant Friday evening news dump going into Christmas weekend, the federal government has released the November border numbers.
CBP reports 233,740 migrant encounters, the highest November ever recorded, and a large increase over last November (174,845).@FoxNews
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) December 24, 2022
Last November, CBP reported 174,253 encounters. In November 2020, the number was only 72,113. While law enforcement has typically reported lower illegal migration numbers in colder months, the current open border policies imposed by the Biden administration is making previous trends irrelevant.
Almost 67,000 of the illegals encountered in November were processed for immediate expulsion under the Trump-era Title 42 public health policy. Agents are bracing for even greater numbers of illegal migrants in the near future, as Title 42 enforcement is threatened by litigation in federal court.
Border agents are bracing for the possible end of Title 42. The Supreme Court has intervened in the case regarding the public health order, delaying the lower federal court order that was to end its enforcement on Wednesday. The high court is hearing expedited arguments from 19 GOP-led states that want to extend Title 42 and the Biden administration that wants to end it immediately.
It’s “illegal immigration” or “illegal border crossings” unless you know there are no drug dealers among them and that all only plan to stay temporarily)
Illegal migration ticked up again in November to more than 233,000 encounters https://t.co/ijxzy22ooJ via @JustTheNews
— Sharyl Attkisson 🕵️♂️💼🥋 (@SharylAttkisson) December 24, 2022
CBP Commissioner Troy Miller said in the report that only 30% of the November encounters were with migrants from Mexico and northern Central America. In November 2021, that number was 53%. Miller said that in 2022, more illegal migrants are coming from many other countries, most notably Cuba and Nicaragua.
CBP also indicated that the number of “got-aways” in November who were not apprehended was at least 73,000 additional illegal migrants.
The late-night Friday release of an unfavorable report is becoming standard operating procedure for the Biden administration. The CBP released the September border report late on a Friday evening in October, in what also appeared to be a tactic designed to minimize public attention.
