A Friday news dump by the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) revealed that border crossings in January, which typically is a comparatively lackluster month for illegal immigration, reached their highest for the month seen in decades.
Townhall reported that numbers for last month exceed what was seen in January of last year, which hit another record at the time. Illegal crossings at the border remain high — Over 400,000 detected aliens unlawfully entered the U.S. between October and January.
NEW: CBP reports there were 156,274 migrant encounters at the Southern border in January, the lowest monthly total for Border Patrol in almost 2 years, but overall w/ CBP included, higher than January ‘22 & significantly higher than ‘21 (78,414) & ‘20 (36,585).
9,902 migrants… https://t.co/LQTEKerZJ8
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) February 10, 2023
Friday dump. Worst January in decades. https://t.co/hqopojE5TX
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) February 10, 2023
It appears Biden is now attempting to appear tough on the border, as seen with his administration’s recently unveiled ‘parole’ program that claims it will bring in 30,000 new migrants a month from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Venezuela, while also deporting unauthorized aliens from those countries.
Biden announced the policy shortly before he made a visit to El Paso, Texas in January, telling potential illegal migrants to remain in their home countries and apply for the program rather than attempting to cross the border. He added that should one not go through the legal channels, they “will not be eligible for this new parole program.”
El Paso has been hit especially hard with illegal immigration when compared to the vast majority of the country.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson featured the well-known city on his show when he discussed the crisis at the southern border in December, claiming that in the past year, illegal immigration into El Paso shot up by 280%.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration has actively been stripping CBP of their aerial detection vehicles, claiming that such a move is necessary due to a “lack of funding.”
Fox News reported that there were 12 aerostats being flown above the southern border last year, with CBP sources informing the outlet that there are now only four remaining following the Department of Homeland Security’s move to slash funding for the program.
The outlet noted:
Last year, the Biden administration added a balloon in Nogales, Arizona. A CBP spokesman told local media that the technology has been used along the border since 2013, that the blimp in question has a range of 3,000 feet above ground level and allows Border Patrol to “maintain visual awareness of border activity in the United States for longer periods of time.”
