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 January 2024. Last month was the worst January on record for CBP, both nationwide (242,587) and at the Southwest border (176,205). The situation remains so dire that, for the first time since taking office, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas recently admitted that the chaos at the border was actually a “crisis,” after refusing for more than three years to do so.
 
While encounters dropped from December to January, decreased encounters in the early months of the year are not uncommon. Encounters at the Southwest border dropped from 179,253 in December 2021 to 154,874 in January 2022. The following year, the decrease was even more pronounced, going from 252,315 in December 2022 to 157,358 in January 2023. 
 
These numbers are far above crisis levels—and CBP remains completely overwhelmed. In 2019, former Secretary under President Barack Obama, Jeh Johnson, said that 1,000 encounters a day “overwhelms the system” and the number of encounters in March 2019 (103,731) constituted a crisis. 
  
Secretary Mayorkas’ approach to the border is fundamentally no different than it was last month—or any other during his tenure. His willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law continues to create perverse incentives for historic numbers of inadmissible aliens to cross our borders and be released into the interior. He has spurned commonsense solutions that would end the crisis, including reinstating the Migrant Protection Protocols. Until these structural changes happen, we’re going to remain stuck in this crisis.

Key Facts:

• Since President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas took office, there have been 8.7 million encounters nationwide and over 7.2 million encounters at the Southwest border.
• CBP recorded 242,587 encounters nationwide in January, including 176,205 at the Southwest border (SWB).
• Nationwide encounters increased 154% compared to January Fiscal Year (FY) 2021. SWB encounters increased 13% compared to FY22 and 124% compared to January FY21.
• In January 2024, 9 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, 340 of these individuals have attempted to cross our Southwest border illegally.
• So far in FY24, 18,755 Chinese nationals have been encountered at the Southwest border.
• So far this fiscal year, CBP has arrested 11,958 aliens with criminal convictions nationwide, including 157 known gang members, 24 of those being MS-13 members. 
• In January, CBP, including Air and Marine Operations (AMO), seized 1,799 pounds of fentanyl coming across the Southwest border, bringing the total for the fiscal year to 6,778 pounds—enough to kill over a billion people.  

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