Border SecuritySeptember Saw a Decline in Attempts to Cross into the U.S. from Mexico

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) last week released operational statistics for September 2021, which can be viewed online here.

“CBP encounters along the Southwest border declined in September from the prior month, and a majority of noncitizens encountered were expelled under Title 42. The men and women of CBP continued to rise admirably to the challenge, despite the strain associated with operating during a global pandemic that has claimed far too many lives among our frontline personnel,” said CBP Acting Commissioner Troy Miller. “In September, CBP continued its tireless efforts to facilitate a return to normal trade and travel, which has been vital to America’s economic rebound from the pandemic. Passenger vehicle and pedestrian travel, as well as air traffic, continue to be significantly higher than during comparable periods from the height of the pandemic in 2020, with commercial truck transit higher than pre-pandemic levels. CBP will continue its work to ensure safety and security at our borders, while managing a fair and orderly immigration system, and facilitating the legitimate trade and travel that is vital to the American economy.”

CBP Enforcement Numbers for September 2021
The large number of expulsions during the pandemic has contributed to a larger-than-usual number of migrants making multiple border crossing attempts, which means that total encounters somewhat overstate the number of unique individuals arriving at the border. 

·  The number of unique encounters in September 2021 was 142,710, a 9% reduction in unique encounters from the prior month.

·  In total, there were 192,001 encounters along the Southwest border, a 9% decrease compared to August. Of those, 26% involved individuals who had at least one prior encounter in the previous 12 months, compared to an average one-year re-encounter rate of 14% for FY2014-2019.

·  Over half (59%) of encounters were single adults, with 113,030 encounters in September, a 9% increase compared to August.

·  102,673 encounters, more than 53% of the total, were processed for expulsion under Title 42. 89,238 encounters were processed under Title 8.

·  84,911 encounters involving single adults (75% of all single adult encounters) were processed for expulsion under Title 42, with 28,119 processed under Title 8.

·  17,599 encounters involving family unit individuals (27% of all family unit individuals) were processed for expulsion under Title 42, with 46,789 processed under Title 8.

Unaccompanied Children

·  Encounters of unaccompanied children decreased 24%, with 14,358 encounters in September compared with 18,806 in August. In September, the average number of unaccompanied children in CBP custody was 772 per day, compared with an average of 1,435 per day in August.

Family Unit individuals

·  Encounters of family unit individuals decreased by 26% from 86,631 in August to 64,388 in September—well below the peak of 88,587 encounters in May 2019. 

In September 2021, the Department of Homeland Security surged resources to respond to a large number of migrants who converged at the international bridge in Del Rio, Texas. In less than one week, the population under the bridge was reduced from more than 15,000 to zero. Over the period in between, the Department’s humanitarian and operational response included immediately deploying hundreds of personnel, basic services, food and drinking water, clothing, transportation, and medical resources to ensure the health of the migrants, our personnel, and the surrounding community.