Guess how many migrants have entered the U.S. via the southwest border this year?

Sign up for our FREE acclaimed newsletters!

The news mainstream media just doesn’t cover. Racial justice journalism since 1909.

Sign up

Want to take a wild guess about how many migrants have entered the U.S. at the southwestern border so far this fiscal year? If you guessed over 2 million, you won the jackpot: 2.3 million, to be exact, at least up to September 20.

It is, surprisingly, about the same number as last fiscal year, even if it seems like a lot more. However, 2022 and 2023 have seen a record number of migrants coming over the southern border, overwhelming cities and resources. 

Border Patrol agents apprehended roughly 140,000 migrants who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border without authorization during the first 20 days of September; an average of about 6,900 each day, according to the internal agency data reported by CBS News. That represents a 60% increase from the daily average of 4,300 in July.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is on track to record more than 210,000 migrant apprehensions this month, according to CBS. In August, the total reported was 232,972, a spike from June and July, when the numbers had dropped somewhat to more than 144,000 and 183,000, respectively. 

The number of migrants coming in has not been in the 200,000 range since April and May, when it hit more than 211,000 and 206,000, respectively. But last week, Border Patrol reportedly processed nearly 9,000 migrants in one day, a daily apprehension level not seen since 10,000 migrants crossed into the U.S. illegally per day during several days in May, before discontinuation of the Trump-era Title 42 rule.

NBC News reported that Border Patrol apprehended more than 7,500 migrants on September 17 while the New York Times reported more than 8,000 migrants on September 18.

The busiest sectors were the Rio Grande Valley in south Texas, where more than 1,800 migrant apprehensions were made on September 17; Del Rio in mid-Texas, more than 1,600, also on September 17; and Tucson, which makes up most of Arizona, more than 1,500 also reported on September 17.

Most migrants entering are single adults or families with children, most of whom are from Cuba, Venezuela, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. 

The rights organization WOLA said that “the numbers indicate that the post-Title 42 ‘wait and see’ period is over, and asylum seekers are again opting to turn themselves in to Border Patrol in areas between the official ports of entry.” 

Many migrants are tired of waiting for an appointment at a port of entry or through a humanitarian parole program and have decided to take their chances and cross the border illegally, while an increasing number of migrants aren’t even aware that legal pathways, like humanitarian parole or appointments via the CBP One smartphone app, exist. 

The crisis is also affecting Mexico: Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Barcena told reporters last week that more migrants have reached the border in recent weeks, leading to increased security checks at the frontier that have caused trade delays.

Barcena said Mexican officials were looking to carry out “assisted returns” of migrants to Ecuador, Venezuela, and Colombia, in addition to current deportation flights to the trio of Central American nations: Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. Mexican shelters are also overcrowded.

So far this year, more than 400,000 migrants have crossed the perilous Darien Gap linking Colombia with Panama, already marking an all-time high and nearly double the figure over all of last year.

Expulsion from the U.S. is no longer as fast as in the Title 42 era, when decisions could be made in minutes or hours. The majority of migrants who apply through the CPB One app are allowed to remain in the U.S. temporarily as they pursue their asylum claims—even though most of them will ultimately lose their cases. That fact is driving most migrants to venture into the U.S. Until the asylum applications are capped for the year and people can apply only at U.S. consulates in a country they are passing through, the numbers will keep on rising. 

The writer is publisher of NewsAmericasNow.com, the Black Immigrant Daily.