WASHINGTON, D.C. –– Today, the House Committee on Homeland Security released its May“Startling Stats” factsheet, outlining the May 2024 U.S Customs and Border Protection (CBP) border encounter data. According to CBP, Southwest border encounters exceeded 170,000 last month, and total nationwide encounters exceeded 240,000 for the 11th month in a row—which adds up to more than 3.1 million encounters in that timeframe. For comparison, CBP recorded roughly the same number of encounters nationwide from Fiscal Years (FY) 2017-2020 combined.

President Biden and the now-impeached Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas have released millions of inadmissible aliens into the country without adequate vetting or screening, while roughly two million more have entered the country as known gotaways. Notably, this month, two Venezuelan nationals were charged with the horrific murder of a young girl in Houston, Jocelyn Nungaray, which they committed after they were apprehended by Border Patrol agents and reportedly released on “Alternatives to Detention” (ATD) after illegally crossing the Southwest border.
 
Since January 20, 2021, DHS has paroled more than two million inadmissible aliens into the interior and released roughly two million more with “Notices to Appear” (NTAs). Through abuse of parole in contravention of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), the Biden administration has incentivized a historic influx at our ports of entry, leading to a 300-percent increase in encounters by the Office of Field Operations (OFO) nationwide. Now, nearly half of all border encounters are at ports of entry, compared to just 12 percent in May of 2021. While this relieves the Biden administration of some embarrassing optics in between ports of entry, the end result of the shell game is the same—mass waves of inadmissible aliens released into the interior rather than detained or removed.
 
The Biden administration likely has no plan in place to remove or reassess the status of these inadmissible aliens once their parole period expires, as a May report from the DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) indicates that the administration has no plan to do so for the roughly 80,000 Afghan nationals paroled into the country following the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal.
 
Key Facts:

• Since President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas took office, there have been more than 9.7 million encounters nationwide and more than 7.9 million encounters at the Southwest border.
• Additionally, roughly 2 million known gotaways have evaded Border Patrol agents since FY2021.
• Nationwide border encounters by OFO at ports of entry (119,376) have increased over 300% compared to May 2021. 
• Since January 2023, 636,600 individuals have scheduled appointments with the CBP One app. 
• Since the program began, 462,100 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans have been mass paroled under the administration’s CHNV parole program at ports of entry. 
• Since FY21, 372 individuals whose names appear on the terrorist watchlist have been caught crossing our Southwest border illegally.
• So far this fiscal year, CBP has arrested 26,384 aliens with criminal convictions or outstanding warrants nationwide.
• Since the beginning of FY24, CBP, including Air and Marine Operations (AMO), has seized enough fentanyl at the Southwest border to kill over 3 billion people.

 
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