WASHINGTON, D.C. –– Today, the House Committee on Homeland Security released the “Startling Stats” factsheet detailing the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) border encounter numbers for February of Fiscal Year (FY) 2024. Last month marked three years since Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ first month in office and the worst February in decades for border encounters––both nationwide (256,094) and at the Southwest border (189,922). In February 2024, the Biden administration officially surpassed a shocking nine million border crossings nationwide, not including the more than 1.8 million gotaways. Read previous “Startling Stats” factsheets at homeland.house.gov/border-startling-stats.

“As expected, and even admitted by this administration, the January drop in border crossings was seasonal—even though that ‘drop’ still left us with a historic January total,” Chairman Green said last week. “Despite Secretary Mayorkas finally admitting that there is a border crisis after three years of lying to Congress and the American people, he continues to incentivize unlawful entry into the country with his mass catch-and-release and mass-parole programs. According to Border Patrol leadership, from chief patrol agents at the Rio Grande Valley Sector to the San Diego Sector, this incentive structure is perpetuating the crisis. Unless this administration reverses course, the country will continue to face the devastating consequences of Secretary Mayorkas’ self-inflicted, unprecedented crisis—for which he has now been impeached.”

Compared to February 2021, nationwide border encounters have increased more than 120 percent, including an 87-percent increase just at the Southwest border. These numbers further establish that Secretary Mayorkas has refused to secure our border, instead opting to incentivize illegal crossings and endanger the lives of Americans. Since February 2021, encounters at ports of entry have increased over 500 percent.

Last month, amid Secretary Mayorkas’ unlawful efforts to mass-parole more inadmissible aliens into the country than ever before, an Athens, Georgia, nursing student, Laken Riley, was tragically murdered by an alien who had illegally crossed the Southwest border in 2022 and was quickly paroled into the interior.

Just last month, over 70,000 otherwise inadmissible aliens were granted parole into the country, with limited vetting at best, through just two of Secretary Mayorkas’ unauthorized parole programs—the CBP One scheme and the parole program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans (CHNV). Read highlights of Homeland Republicans’ questioning in a hearing on the CBP One scheme last week here.

Key Facts: 

• CBP recorded 256,094 encounters nationwide in February, including 189,922 at the Southwest border (SWB)––the worst February in decades.
• Since 2021, there have been 9 million encounters nationwide and over 7.4 million encounters at the Southwest border.
• In February 2024, 11 more individuals whose names appear on the terrorist watchlist were stopped trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border between ports of entry.
• Since FY21, 351 of these individuals have been caught crossing our Southwest border illegally.
• So far in FY24, 22,292 Chinese nationals have been encountered at the Southwest border.
• Since January 2023, 501,000 individuals have scheduled appointments with the CBP One app.
• In the past five months, CBP has arrested 14,949 aliens with criminal convictions or outstanding warrants nationwide.
• In February, CBP, including Air and Marine Operations (AMO), seized 1,185 pounds of fentanyl coming across the Southwest border, bringing the total for the fiscal year to 8,112 pounds—enough to kill nearly 2 billion people.
• Since the program began, 386,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans have been mass paroled under the administration’s CHNV parole program at ports of entry nationwide. 

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