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) border encounter data for October 2023, which marks the beginning of Fiscal Year (FY) 2024. 

“It may be a new fiscal year, but we’re still stuck in the same historic border crisis,” Chairman Green said. “These are catastrophic numbers across the board. Over 188,000 apprehensions between the ports are more than enough to completely overwhelm Border Patrol agents, and the rising number of encounters at the ports demonstrates that tens of thousands of otherwise inadmissible aliens are increasingly taking advantage of the mass-parole programs Secretary Mayorkas has created, including his abuse of the CBP One app. Documents we recently obtained from the department under threat of subpoena showed that CBP is releasing almost 96 percent of those who make appointments through the app into the interior, and they’ve scheduled around 324,000 appointments since January. That’s some bad math. I want to make this very clear to Secretary Mayorkas—accountability is coming.”

Under Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and President Joe Biden, FY2024 is starting out right where FY 2023 ended—at historic levels of encounters. With Southwest border encounters up 46% compared to October 2021 and up 4% compared to October 2022, last month was the fourth-worst month on CBP record. Border Patrol agents and Office of Field Operations (OFO) officers are still being pushed to breaking point, working through yet another month of more than 240,000 encounters at the Southwest border (240,988), of which 188,000 were between ports of entry. Unfortunately, Border Patrol agents have told the Committee on numerous occasions that agents feel they are not equipped to succeed in their mission to secure the homeland under these unprecedented conditions.

This startling testimony underscores a worsening national security threat. Last month, 12 more individuals on the terrorist watchlist were apprehended crossing the Southwest border. As this chaos continues, the threats to our homeland in the wake of the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel continue to grow, especially as CBP warned last month that potential Iran-backed terrorists could be exploiting our open Southwest border. Federal Bureau of Investigation Director (FBI) Christopher Wray alluded to this threat before the Committee yesterday.

In October, 44,000 more aliens were processed through the Biden administration’s expanded use of the CBP One app, bringing the total number of otherwise inadmissible aliens who have made appointments through the app to approximately 324,000 just since January 2023. According to documents obtained by the Committee, 95% of the individuals processed via the app between January 2023 and September 2023 were released directly into the interior, and aliens from state-sponsors of terror, such as Iran and Syria, have been released into the country on parole.

Key Facts:

• U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recorded 309,221 encounters nationwide in October, including 240,988 at the Southwest border (SWB). 
• Since President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas took office, there have been 7.8 million encounters nationwide and 6.5 million encounters at the Southwest border, in addition to over 1.7 million known gotaways who evaded U.S. Border Patrol. 
• In October, CBP arrested 3,295 aliens with criminal convictions nationwide, including 50 known gang members, 3 of those being MS-13 members. 
• Last month, CBP, including Air and Marine Operations, seized 1,330 pounds of fentanyl coming across the Southwest border—enough to kill more than 3 million people. 
• Just in the first month of FY2024, 12 individuals whose names appear on the terrorist watchlist were stopped trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border between ports of entry. 
• Last month, 4,261 Chinese nationals were encountered at the Southwest border. This represents a 890% increase compared to October 2022. 
• More than 44,000 inadmissible aliens were processed by OFO with CBP One app appointments in October. 

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