Border Patrol Sees Record Apprehensions at Southern Border in December

U.S. Border Patrol agent Carlos Rivera guides migrants to be processed after they attempted to cross the border from Mexico into Sunland Park, N.M., September 17, 2021. (Paul Ratje/Reuters)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) apprehended 178,840 illegal immigrants at the border in December 2021, making it the worst December at the border in Department of Homeland Security (DHS) history, and “breaking the previous December record under DHS by over 100,000,” GOP Rapid Response director Tommy Pigott noted today.

It’s up from the previous month — in November, CBP reported 174,744 apprehensions — but still down from its July peak of 213,593 encounters between illegal immigrants and border-enforcement agents.

More to the point, though, the number of apprehensions at or near the border points to a rolling crisis for America’s immigration system. It’s also a damning indictment of the fact that the White House has done little to nothing to stem the tide of illegal immigrants pouring over the southern border. It’s been a year now. The hand-waving and excuses that Biden used to justify his failures at the border in the early months of his tenure are no longer possible to make.

Meanwhile, it’s been well over half a year since Kamala Harris — ostensibly the administration’s border czar — even visited the border. In fact, she’s only visited the border once: Her trip down south was in June 2021. Instead, the Biden–Harris administration continues to tout its white papers and policy proposals for stemming the tide of migration by addressing its “root causes.”