New numbers released by the Biden administration late on Friday night showed the situation at the U.S. Southern Border continuing to deteriorate at an alarming rate.
The numbers, published by Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) at nearly midnight Friday, showed 227,547 encounters along the southwest land border in September, a 12% increase compared to August.
The numbers were the highest ever recorded by DHS for the month of September, Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin said.
Melugin added that the Biden administration ended Fiscal Year 2022 with 2,378,944 encounters, which was also the highest ever.
FY’22 September: 227,547
FY’21 September: 192,001
FY’20 September: 57,674
FY’19 September: 52,546
The FY’22 September border numbers are more than quadruple the FY’19 numbers, which was the year Trump had his own surge at the border. @FoxNews
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) October 22, 2022
Melugin further added that were 20 arrests at the southern border of known or suspected terrorists on the FBI’s terror watchlist in September.
“FY’22 ended with 98 terror watchlist arrests,” he said. “That’s almost quadruple the previous 5 years combined. FY17-FY21 = 26”
BREAKING: There were 20 arrests of known or suspected terrorists on the FBI’s terror watchlist at the border in September, according to new CBP numbers.
FY’22 ended with 98 terror watchlist arrests.
That’s almost quadruple the previous 5 years combined.
FY17-FY21 = 26@FoxNews
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) October 22, 2022
Another corresponded for Fox News, Griff Jenkins, exclusively obtained the number of migrants who have died at the southern border for Fiscal Year 2022.
“The number that @CBP refuses to make public: 856 – the number of migrants DEATHS at our southern border for FY22,” Jenkins tweeted. “The highest and deadliest EVER on record. Meanwhile, there have been 25 migrant deaths already this FY23.”
BREAKING ** FOX NEWS EXCLUSIVELY OBTAINS ** The number that @CBP refuses to make public: 856 – the number of migrants DEATHS at our southern border for FY22.
The highest and deadliest EVER on record. Meanwhile, there have been 25 migrant deaths already this FY23… @FoxNews https://t.co/ROIi5Id25I
— Griff Jenkins (@GriffJenkins) October 22, 2022
The Biden administration released the numbers after former top DHS officials threatened to release the numbers themselves on Tuesday if the administration did not release them.
“The time for excuses is over—the next Congress needs to take actual steps to hold this administration accountable for the chaos and carnage they have unleashed on our southwest border,” Tom Homan, Heritage visiting fellow and former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director, said in a statement. “That means starting with impeaching Secretary Mayorkas, who has helped implement this disastrous open-borders agenda and lied to the American people about it.”
“This is a shameful episode in our history, and the ones who are suffering are not the elites in their gated and secured Beltway communities,” he continued. “It’s the Border Patrol agents being overwhelmed on a daily basis. It’s the families who have been ripped apart losing a loved one to fentanyl or other drugs. And it’s the migrants themselves, who are worthless to the cartels once they’ve been paid. The next Congress better do something about it.”
Mark Morgan, Heritage visiting fellow and former acting Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) commissioner, said that last year’s numbers represented “a catastrophically terrible year for border security, and consequently, for the American people.”
“The last 12 months have been orders of magnitude worse,” Morgan continued. “The primary responsibility of the federal government is to protect Americans and our interests. The Biden administration—from Joe Biden, to Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, to CBP Chief Chris Magnus—have knowingly, willfully, and consistently violated that responsibility.”
“We have simply never seen these numbers before in our history, and the Biden open-borders policies are the reason,” he continued. “These policies have deadly consequences for everyone involved, American citizens and the migrants themselves. Illegal immigration makes our border less secure, and as more Border Patrol agents are pulled off the lines to process record numbers of illegal aliens, the cartels are taking advantage. Ninety-five percent of the fentanyl flowing into our country comes across our southwest border, and the drug is now the leading cause of death for Americans 18-45. Illegal aliens continue to be arrested for committing crimes in our communities. And gang members, violent criminals, sexual predators, and known or suspected terrorists are slipping across our border, with Border Patrol never even having a chance to catch them. Those people are now in your community.”
