Customs and Border Protection encountered more illegal aliens on America’s borders and at U.S. ports of entry in August than any other single month on record.
CBP released the latest numbers Friday, reporting 304,162 illegal aliens encountered in the month of August, surpassing the previous record high in December 2022 by nearly 2,000.
“The crisis at our southern border is only becoming more dire by the day—evidenced by the record-breaking number of illegal border crossings,” Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, told The Daily Signal.
“President [Joe] Biden and his administration have completely abandoned our Border Patrol agents and the security of the American people,” Pfluger said. “I’m fighting for the most comprehensive border security package ever passed by Congress to close the border and support to our officers in green.”
In May, House Republicans passed a border security bill known as HR 2, and now some Republicans say they will not support any spending bill that gives money to the Department of Homeland Security without action being taken to secure the border.
A White House spokesperson defended the Biden administration’s handling of the border, telling The Daily Signal in an email Monday that “President Biden has called on Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform since his first day in office, and House Republicans continue to block it. Now, House Republicans who claim to care about border security are threatening it by proposing a continuing resolution that would eliminate 800 CBP agents and officers, and by marching toward a shutdown that would halt pay to tens of thousands of DHS law enforcement personnel.”
With CBP’s September encounter numbers still unknown, fiscal year 2023 has already surpassed previous years with the most illegal alien encounters in one year on record.
Republicans and Democrats alike continue to speak out against the policies of the Biden administration that many say have led to the surge of encounters on America’s borders, particularly the southern border.
“Never in the history of our country has the president done more to intentionally harm the country than what [Biden] has done at our border, Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., told The Daily Signal. “The Biden border invasion is so bad, even Democrats in blue cities are feeling the effects and speaking out. Joe Biden should be impeached for his actions at the border alone.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a Democrat running for president in 2024, told Jesse Watters on Fox News on Friday that he understands that “a lot of the Democrats promoted this policy at the beginning of the Biden administration out of a humanitarian impulse, but it’s been a catastrophic failure.”
The Biden administration’s policies have “caused a humanitarian crisis at the border,” Kennedy said, adding that “our border policies are now being administered by the Mexican drug cartels.”
During a “Daily Signal Podcast” interview in February, former Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott said the drug cartels play a role in every illegal crossing into the U.S. at the southern border.
Migrants are “either directly paying the cartels, or the cartels are controlling their movements for another benefit, meaning to systematically overwhelm Border Patrol, create a gap in the border security, and then bring the narcotics across,” Scott said.
The current surge of illegal aliens has overwhelmed the border town of Eagle Pass, Texas—a city of about 30,000 about 140 miles southwest of San Antonio—where the Democratic mayor has declared a state of emergency.
During an interview with CNN last week, Eagle Pass Mayor Rolando Salinas said the president “bears some responsibility for this crisis.” The mayor added that he has not “heard from anybody in the administration.”
“We’re here abandoned,” Salinas said. “We’re on the border. We’re asking for help. This is unacceptable.”
Over the weekend, Fox News’ Griff Jenkins reported that more than 4,000 illegal aliens crossed the border into Eagle Pass between Friday and Sunday. And according to his CBP sources, Jenkins said Monday that there “were approximately 11,000 migrant encounters at the [southwest] border in the last 24 hours, marking the ‘single highest day in recent memory.’”
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, responded to the news, posting on X, “We are now breaking records in a matter of 24 hours. We don’t have a border if we don’t secure it from illegal entries.”
Have an opinion about this article? To sound off, please email letters@DailySignal.com, and we’ll consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular “We Hear You” feature. Remember to include the URL or headline of the article plus your name and town and/or state.