Border arrests down more than 40%, DHS says
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday announced a significant decrease in illegal border crossing arrests at the southern border with Mexico.
He attributed the decline to President Biden’s recent executive order.
“Across the entire southern border, Border Patrol encounters have dropped by over 40%,” Mayorkas said. “We are removing more non-citizens without a legal basis to stay here.”
Mayorkas, speaking in Tucson, Arizona, said the executive order from three weeks ago, which suspends asylum processing when daily arrests exceed 2,500, is directly responsible for the decrease.
“In three weeks, we have operated over 100 international repatriation flights to more than 20 countries and removed or returned more than 24,000 individuals,” he said.
According to Homeland Security, the average daily encounters by Border Patrol over a seven-day period have fallen below 2,400, down more than 40%. This is the lowest number since just before Biden took office. However, it is still above the 1,500 mark needed to resume asylum processing.
Benjamin Prado, from the American Friends Service Committee’s U.S.-Mexico Border Program, noted that while the executive order might be reducing illegal border crossing arrests, it is causing other issues.
“What it has created are open-air detention sites where we provide humanitarian aid. We continue to see migrants from all over the world,” Prado said. “The policy of shutting down the border creates much more hostile conditions for migrants and fuels a whole economy around human smuggling, worsening conditions at these sites.”
Prado added that migrants with legitimate asylum claims cannot apply at ports of entry and must instead use the CBP One app, which he described as difficult and frustrating.
“People have to register, take a picture, enter all their biological information, and wait for an appointment that often doesn’t come or is very delayed,” Prado said.
During his press conference, Mayorkas also called on Congress to come together and agree on legislation to fix what he described as a broken immigration system.
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