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Arrests at Southern Border Reach Record Two Million

(Getty Images)
September 20, 2022

For the first time ever, the number of illegal immigrants crossing the border reached two million in one fiscal year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported Monday.

Undocumented immigrants are flooding the country at a historic pace this fiscal year, which ends on September 30. Border Patrol recorded 2,005,026 arrests since last October. Of those arrests, 78 were of individuals on the FBI's terror watchlist, triple the number detained in the previous five years combined, Fox News reported. With a record 8,000 migrants encountered at the border every day, the White House faces growing criticism for its handling of the border crisis.

"We take what's happening at the southern border very seriously, unlike some," Gov. Ron DeSantis (R., Fla.) said in a speech last Thursday, "and unlike the president of the United States, who has refused to lift a finger to secure that border."

In recent months, DeSantis as well as the governors of Texas and Arizona have transported migrants to liberal cities whose leaders endorse lax immigration policies, bringing more attention to the crisis facing border cities.

Despite the record migrants at the border, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has defended the Biden administration's handling of the crisis. She claims they have taken "unprecedented action" at the southern border, including new border technology and anti-smuggling task forces. Biden administration officials emphasized on Monday that more immigrants have been removed or expelled this year than any previous year. Just last year, however, the Biden administration's policies led to the lowest deportation rate in decades, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

Migrants are not just coming from Mexico and Central America, CBP reported.

"Failing communist regimes in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba are driving a new wave of migration across the Western Hemisphere, including the recent increase in encounters at the southwest U.S. border," said CBP commissioner Chris Magnus in a press release Monday.