WASHINGTON — U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released operational statistics today for June 2024, which show a significant decline in migrant encounters following a Presidential Proclamation announced June 4, 2024, by President Biden to temporarily suspend the entry of certain noncitizens across the southern border. Border Patrol encounters between ports of entry were 29% lower than in May 2024 and were the lowest monthly total for the Border Patrol along the southwest border since January 2021 as well as lower than the number of encounters between ports of entry in June 2019, the last comparable year prior to the pandemic. CBP monthly reporting can be viewed on CBP’s Stats and Summaries webpage.
“Recent border security measures have made a meaningful impact on our ability to impose consequences for those crossing unlawfully, leading to a decline of 29% in U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions from May to June, with a more than 50% drop in the seven day average from the announcement to the end of the month, and doubling the rate at which we removed noncitizens from U.S. Border Patrol custody in June,” said Troy A. Miller, CBP Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Commissioner. “We are continuing to work with international partners to go after transnational criminal organizations that traffic in chaos and prioritize profit over human lives.”
On June 4, 2024, the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Attorney General also jointly issued an interim final rule (IFR) that, consistent with the Presidential Proclamation, generally restricts asylum eligibility for those who irregularly enter across the southwest land and the southern coastal border. The number of encounters at our Southwest Border have decreased by more than 50% in the past six weeks. The Border Patrol’s seven-day average has decreased to below 1,900 encounters per day.
Since the Presidential Proclamation and Interim Final Rule went into effect on June 5, DHS has removed or returned more than 70,000 individuals to more than 170 countries, including by operating more than 150 international repatriation flights.* Total removals and returns over the past year exceed removals and returns in any fiscal year since 2010 and a majority of all southwest border encounters during the past three fiscal years resulted in a removal, return, or expulsion.
Below are key operational statistics for CBP’s primary mission areas in June 2024. View all CBP statistics online.
Ensuring Border Security and Managing Migration
CBP, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), continues to expeditiously process, remove, and strengthen consequences for individuals who cross our borders irregularly. Individuals and families without a legal basis to remain in the U.S. are subject to removal pursuant to Title 8 authorities and are subject to a minimum five-year bar on admission as well as potential prosecution if they subsequently re-enter without authorization. No one should believe the lies of smugglers. The fact remains: the United States continues to enforce immigration law, and those without a legal basis to remain will be removed. Migrants attempting to enter without authorization are subject to removal under Title 8 authorities.
In June – the first month in which the Presidential Proclamation and IFR have been in effect – the U.S. Border Patrol recorded 83,536 encounters between ports of entry along the southwest border. These Border Patrol encounters were 29% lower than in May 2024 and were the lowest monthly total for the Border Patrol along the southwest border since January 2021. Total southwest border irregular encounters in June, including individuals who presented at ports of entry without a CBP One appointment, were 88,612, a 30% decrease from May 2024. This is CBP’s lowest monthly southwest border encounter total since January 2021. From May to June, the total number of individuals encountered along the southwest border between ports of entry and at ports of entry without a CBP appointment decreased across all demographics: encounters of unaccompanied children decreased 14%, single adult encounters decreased 28%, and family unit individual encounters decreased by 36%.
The number of unaccompanied children encountered by CBP along the southwest border in June 2024, including individuals who presented at ports of entry without a CBP One appointment, decreased 14% compared to May 2024, decreased 28% compared to May for single adults, and decreased 36% for family unit individuals.
The United States is working together with our domestic and foreign partners to jointly disrupt irregular migration across our borders and monitor emerging threats, including public safety concerns posed by transnational criminal organizations. We continue to conduct thorough screening and vetting for all individuals that we encounter on the southern border to identify anyone affiliated with these organizations. For example, DHS has implemented enhanced screening measures at the border to identify gang members who are detained for criminal prosecution or placement in Expedited Removal.
CBP continues to offer safe, orderly, and lawful pathways for intending migrants and, with our international partners, we are taking actions against ruthless smugglers who continue to spread falsehoods and show disregard for the safety and well-being of vulnerable migrants. Our message for anyone who is thinking of entering the United States unlawfully along the southern border is simple: don’t do it. When migrants cross the border unlawfully, they put their lives in peril. The terrain along the border is extreme, the summer heat is severe, and the miles of desert migrants must hike after crossing the border in many areas are often deadly. People who made the dangerous journey into this territory have died of dehydration, starvation, and heat stroke. Smuggling organizations abandon migrants in remote and dangerous areas.
The U.S. Border Patrol has undertaken significant efforts in recent years to expand capacity to aid and rescue individuals in distress. To prevent the loss of life, CBP initiated a Missing Migrant Program in 2017 that locates noncitizens reported missing, rescues individuals in distress, and reunifies decedents’ remains with their families in the border region. In June, the U.S. Border Patrol conducted 461 rescues, bringing the FY 2024 total to 4,068rescues.
View more migration statistics and rescues statistics.
