Set to top 2M arrests

Record crosser busts

The number of migrants arrested at the US-Mexico border has already exceeded last year’s record — and is on pace to top 2 million for the first time ever, according to the Biden administration.

With two months left to go in fiscal year 2022, Border Patrol has already made more than 1.81 million arrests — well above the previous record of 1.66 million over the 12-month period ending Sept. 30 of last year.

“We’re apprehending people left and right,” Border Patrol agent Jesus Vasalvilbaso told The Wall Street Journal.

The agency reported 181,552 arrests last month, a 5.6% drop from the 192,418 reported in June.

The record-breaking numbers were released amid controversy over the dispatch by the governors of Texas and Arizona of busloads of migrants to New York and Washington, DC, to protest the Biden administration’s border policies, which they say have led directly to the surge in illegal border crossings.

Faced with the unexpected influx of migrants seeking asylum, New York is planning to convert a luxury Times Square hotel into an intake center and shelter for hundreds of families, The Post reported Tuesday.

More than 1.29 million apprehended people — 71% of those arrested by Border Patrol since Oct. 1 of last year — were single adults, most likely to be economic migrants without a valid asylum claim.

The number of migrants stopped at the southern border declined for the second consecutive month, dropping below 200,000 for the first time since February. The July number of 199,976 encounters was down 3.8% from 207,933 in June and down 6.8% from 213,593 border stops in July 2021.

“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.

However, the agency also found the unique number of migrants encountered at the southern border ticked up 1% to 162,792. More than 43,000 of those encountered last month had already been stopped at least once in the previous year.

“I won’t give up,” Rafael Ruiz, 54, a Mexican who has already tried to enter the US three times, told the Journal. “I have nothing here.”

People from countries more likely to be released in the US on humanitarian parole or with notices to appear in immigration court were stopped more often last month. Border Patrol agents stopped Venezuelans 17,603 times in July, up 34% from June.