U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released the number of illegal immigrants they encountered in November right before Christmas, in a move as what can only be described as a way to keep the ongoing border crisis out of the national spotlight.
According to official CBP data, Border Patrol agents encountered 233,740 illegal immigrants in November. That is significantly higher from previous Novembers. In fiscal year 2022, CBP had 174,253 encounters and in fiscal year 2021, there were 72,113 encounters. The winter months historically see fewer attempts to illegally cross the southern border, but the current crisis has shown all past trends are now outdated.
The number of gotaways, which are not included in CBP's publicly released data, continue to remain at their highest levels in years.
A reminder, these numbers do not include known gotaways. CBP sources tell us there were at least 73,000 known gotaways in the month of November alone. These are people who are detected or seen, but there is no manpower to get to them for capturer. @FoxNews
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) December 24, 2022
CBP releasing the official numbers late at night right before the weekend is similar to when they released September's border apprehension numbers late Friday night in October.
The high encounter numbers are all occurring while Title 42, the public health order, is still in place. A lawsuit brought by Republican states to keep it in place is now before the U.S. Supreme Court. It is expected once the order goes away, an even bigger influx of illegal crossings will take place, straining border town resources that are already at a breaking point. The Department of Justice asked the Court for Title 42 to be lifted starting on December 27.
