A record number of migrants have been arrested at the southern border this fiscal year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced on Monday.
Border Patrol reported making 1.82 million arrests, beating last fiscal year’s record-setting 1.66 million. Two-thirds of those migrants were single adults. Analysts expect arrests to reach two million by the end of the fiscal year, which runs from October to the end of September, the Wall Street Journal reported.
"We’re apprehending people left and right," Border Patrol agent Jesus Vasalvilbaso told the Wall Street Journal.
The border crisis continues to surge under the Biden administration’s more lenient immigration policies. In the 2021 fiscal year, the Biden administration reduced migrant prosecutions by nearly 80 percent. In April, the administration announced it plans to end Title 42, a Trump-era immigration policy that allowed the United States to quickly expel illegal immigrants, a decision most voters opposed.
In response to the president’s immigration policy, Texas governor Greg Abbott (R.) has bused thousands of asylum seekers from the border to the Democrat-run cities of Washington, D.C., and New York City, prompting the cities' mayors to call for federal aid.
"[It] has never been worse," Abbott told Fox News in July. "And it's never been worse because the numbers are higher than they've ever been, the problems and challenges are mounting on the other side of the border. But worst of all, we are not seeing the president lift a finger to do anything about it. … It's reprehensible."