WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the House Committee on Homeland Security released its latest “Startling Stats” factsheet outlining U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) September and Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 border encounter data. In the final month of FY2023, CBP recorded 269,735 encounters at the Southwest border, marking another unprecedented milestone under Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and President Joe Biden’s open-borders policies. This monthly number also represents an 86% increase from June 2023, when the Biden administration celebrated a short-lived drop in illegal crossings following the end of Title 42. 

The annual numbers proved just as catastrophic. In FY23, CBP recorded more than 2.4 million encounters at the Southwest border and more than 3.2 million encounters nationwide. Just this fiscal year, 169 individuals on the terrorist watchlist were apprehended attempting to enter the country illegally, and at least 1.7 million known gotaways have evaded apprehension since FY2021. Americans did not need more proof that Biden and Mayorkas’ post-Title 42 strategy had failed, but unfortunately, that’s exactly what we have gotten. 
 
As this disaster spirals further out of control, the Biden administration does not know how many dangerous illegal aliens are entering the country undetected, especially as Border Patrol agents are being pulled off the front lines to help process and release the historic number of illegal aliens flooding the border. While monthly apprehensions and encounters continue to increase, Mayorkas simply continues to double down on his mass-parole programs, incentivizing and facilitating the entry of otherwise inadmissible aliens into the United States at a scale never before seen.
 
Key Facts:

• Encounters at the Southwest border (SWB) in FY2023 increased over 40% since FY2021, 4% compared to FY2022, and more than 100% compared to FY2019.
• Last month, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported a 40% increase compared to September 2021 and 18% compared to September 2022. 
• Since President Biden took office, there have been 7.5 million encounters nationwide and 6.2 million encounters at the Southwest border, in addition to 1.7 million known gotaways.  
• In FY2023, 169 individuals whose names appear on the terrorist watchlist were stopped trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border between ports of entry. 18 were apprehended in September alone.
• So far in FY2023, CBP has arrested 35,433 aliens with criminal convictions or outstanding warrants nationwide, including 598 known gang members, 178 of those being MS-13 members. 
• In FY2023, CBP, including Air and Marine Operations, has seized 27,293 pounds of fentanyl, coming across the Southwest border—enough to kill more than 6 billion people.

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