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The number of illegal aliens caught at the southwest border of the United States in January dropped nearly 10 percent from December, the largest one-month decrease since the beginning of fiscal 2020 in October.
Agents caught a little more than 36,000 illegals either jumping the border or arriving at ports of entry.
If that rate of decline continues, the number of illegals who cross the border in September will be less than 15,000, which in turn would mean the number that month dropped 68.5 percent from the first month of the fiscal year.
The total for the year would be about 62-percent less than fiscal 2019’s nearly one million.
The Numbers
Border agents bagged 36,679 illegals, 29,200 of whom crossed the southwest frontier between ports of entry, Customs and Border Protection reported.
Among them were:
• Unaccompanied Children — 2,691
• Family Units — 5,163
• Single Adults — 21,346
Another 7,479 were stopped at ports of entry and declared inadmissible:
• Unaccompanied Children — 442
• Family Units — 3,066
• Single Adults — 3,938
• Accompanied Minor Child — 33
January’s total of illegals apprehended was 9.7-percent less than December’s 40,621. It was 18.8 percent less than October’s 45,188.
The number of families apprehended dropped 40 percent from December and 31.7 percent from October.
Despite those decreases, border agents are still catching 50 illegals every hour of every day.
Totals for Fiscal 2020
Since October 1, border agents have collared 165,139 “migrants,” a vast majority of whom traveled north from the Northern Triangle through Mexico to the border, as CBP officials have said.
Of that total, 130,976 illegals were nabbed between ports of entry:
• Unaccompanied Children — 12,070
• Family Units — 32,480
• Single Adults — 86,426
Another 34,163 were stopped at ports of entry and declared inadmissible:
• Unaccompanied Children — 1,664
• Family Units — 14,669
• Single Adults — 17,582
• Accompanied Minor Child — 248
This total for the first four months of this fiscal year is 32-percent less than last year’s 242,361, a decrease partly attributable to Mexico’s efforts to stop the flood after President Trump threatened the nation with tariffs.
Mexico has blocked at least two “caravans” of Central American illegals, most recently on January 20. Those caravans also carry Africans and very likely other would-be “migrants” from the Third World.
Those efforts have helped enormously in decreasing the number of “families” heading north with small children in tow.
Many of them are fakes, as The New American has reported, but in any event that number is substantially less that it was last year, when those “families” knew they could cross Mexico and the U.S. border unimpeded.
By this time last fiscal year, border agents had corralled 117,761 “families.” As of January 31 this year, that number had dropped 60 percent to 47,149.
CBP caught on to the “family scam” and began DNA testing to block the fakers.
Coming Months
Apprehensions have steadily declined since May, when 144,116 illegals crossed. By the end of fiscal 2019, the monthly total was 52,546.
The number has continued decreasing since: 5.6 percent from October to November, and another 4.7 percent by December’s end.
If the numbers keep decreasing at a rate of about 10 percent, the total apprehended in September will be about 14,000.
The total apprehended in fiscal 2020 will be about 367,000, a 62-percent drop from the 977,509 apprehended in fiscal 2019.
But again, even with that drop, border agents will have apprehended and processed 42 illegals every hour every day of the year.
Photo: AP Images
R. Cort Kirkwood is a long-time contributor to The New American and a former newspaper editor.
