Over 2 Million Illegal Migrant Encounters Expected at Overwhelmed US Border by Fiscal Year End - CBP

US Customs and Border Protection agents have been dealing with overwhelming numbers of migrants attempting to make their way into the country illegally via the border with Mexico. Overall, the agency has reported over 1.7 million encounter in the current fiscal year, which will end September 30.

The migrant crisis on the US-Mexico border continues to relentlessly smolder on, despite a slight dip in the high numbers of migrant encounters, newly-released federal data showed.

199,976 migrant encounters were registered by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in July, according to cited figures, which is a slight decrease from the 213,593 encountered in July 2021.

However, taking into account migrants arrested for crossing the border illegally and processed at ports of entry, CBP has processed arrivals over 1.9 million times in the 2022 fiscal year. This figure surpasses the record set in 2021. Border arrivals are predicted to exceed 2 million this fiscal year.

"This marks the second month in a row of decreased encounters along the Southwest border. While the encounter numbers remain high, this is a positive trend and the first two-month drop since October 2021," CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus said in a statement Monday.

Persistently high number of migrants seeking to enter the US illegally through the border with Mexico reflect the continuing crisis that the administration of US President Joe Biden has miserably failed to resolve.

Data shows that two-thirds of all migrants encountered at the US southern border were single adults. In July, there were 134,362 such encounters, with only 74,573 resulting in expulsions under the Title 42 public health order.

The health-related provision enacted by former president Donald Trump because of COVID-19 allowed CBP to expel illegal immigrants before they could be admitted to claim asylum.

The Biden administration had been intent on scrapping this provision, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announcing that Title 42 would end on May 23. But a federal judge in Louisiana temporarily blocked that decision from taking effect.

Data also shows that over 13,000 unaccompanied children also entered US border custody last month.

Republicans have pilloried the Biden administration for the crisis at the border, claiming that ever since the Democratic POTUS came to power he has been determined to undo everything his predecessor Donald Trump had done to secure it.

Strict Trump-era policies had included border wall construction and the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP). Recently, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced it was ending the Trump-era “Remain-in-Mexico" policy, requiring asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for hearings in US immigration court.

The US Supreme Court had ruled on June 30 that the Biden administration could end the policy.

DHS said the program would be rolled back in a “quick, and orderly manner”, adding it had been permeated with “endemic flaws” and imposed “unjustifiable human costs.”

In another move, the Supreme Court in July prevented the Biden administration from reinstating its narrowed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportation and arrest priorities. These rules instructed US deportation agents to prioritize the arrest of certain unauthorized immigrants, such as those deemed as posing a risk to public safety or national security. Republicans lawmakers slammed the guidelines as too restrictive and failing to deter illegal immigration.

After Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas recently claimed that the border was "secure," both GOP lawmakers and border officials erupted in fresh criticism.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said voters in Texas were "fed up" with the border chaos under the Biden administration.

"And that is exactly why we are sending these illegal immigrants to places like Washington, D.C., and New York City," he said.

Over 7,000 migrants have been bused from Texas and Arizona to the nation’s capital since April. While critics has slammed this move as a GOP “political stunt” by the Republican governors of the two states, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said in a statement in April:

“By busing migrants to Washington, DC, Texas is sending a clear message: we should not have to bear the burden of the federal government’s inaction to secure the border.”