Migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border hit a record high at the end of 2023
The U.S. Border Patrol had nearly 250,000 encounters with migrants crossing into the United States from Mexico in December 2023.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
The U.S. Border Patrol had nearly 250,000 encounters with migrants crossing into the United States from Mexico in December 2023.
The U.S. Border Patrol reported more than 1.6 million encounters with migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border in the 2021 fiscal year.
While Mexico is the United States’ largest source of immigrants, the number of Mexican immigrants living in the U.S. illegally has declined since 2007.
Mexico has apprehended and deported more migrants within its borders so far this fiscal year than at the same point in fiscal 2018.
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The increase from these countries exceeded modest growth of the overall foreign-born population and came amid a decline in immigrants from Mexico.
The Obama administration deported 333,341 unauthorized immigrants in the 2015 fiscal year, a decline of about 81,000 (or 20%) from the prior year.
The number of migrant apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border rose by 42% in October and November of 2016 compared with the same two-month period in 2015.
The Obama administration deported 414,481 unauthorized immigrants in fiscal 2014, a drop from the prior year driven by a decline in deportations of immigrants with a criminal conviction.
This change comes after a period in which net migration of Mexicans to the U.S. had fallen to lows not seen since the 1940s.
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