Illegal border crossings reach lowest level in recorded US history in July

By Bethany Blankley
The Center Square

Illegal border crossings nationwide dropped to their lowest level in recorded history in July, according to the latest U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.

“CBP shut down illegal crossings again this month, setting enforcement records and collecting billions in tariffs,” CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott said. This is what making America great and safe again looks like.”

According to the data, 24,628 encounters and apprehensions were reported nationwide, the lowest monthly total reported by CBP in U.S. history.

July numbers are down from 170,180 last July, and from 245,154 in July 2023 and 238,929 in July 2022, according to the data.

The data excludes got aways, those who illegally entered the country between ports of entry to evade capture and didn’t file immigration claims. More than two million got aways were reported during the Biden administration by Border Patrol agents, The Center Square exclusively reported.

CBP does not publicly report this data. The Center Square reported it after obtaining it from a Border Patrol agent. The total number of got aways is estimated to be much higher, Trump administration officials argue.

By region, 6,296 illegal border crossers were reported at the northern border in July, slightly less than the 7,832 reported at the northern border. Nationwide, 10,500 were reported at air, land and seaports, according to the data.

The numbers represent a dramatic drop from a record high 18,569 reported at the northern border in July 2023 and a record high 200,162 reported at the southwest border in July 2022, according to the data.

The CBP data includes encounters and apprehensions reported by Border Patrol and CBP Office of Field Operations officers nationwide.

At the southwest border, no illegal border crossers were released into the U.S. through parole programs, compared to 12,365 released by Border Patrol agents in July last year under the Biden Administration, CBP said.

As has been the case every month, the greatest number of illegal border crossers reported this year—nationwide and at both borders—are single adults.

Of the 639,826 illegal border crossers reported this fiscal year through July, 457,785 were single adults. The next greatest number were individuals claiming to be family units, followed by “unaccompanied alien children” (UAC) and accompanied minors.

CBP’s fiscal year goes from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.

Under the Biden administration, at the height of the border crisis, a record high 152,880 UACs were reported illegally entering the U.S. in fiscal 2022, followed by 137,992 in 2023 and 110,672 in 2024, according to the data.

This fiscal year through July, 27,980 UACs were reported. Nearly all are released into the country through a federal program rife with allegations of fraud and abuse of children, The Center Square reported.

The majority of children released into the U.S. were sent to live with sponsors or to nongovernmental organization-run facilities are in Texas, The Center Square reported.

Of the 300,000 juveniles released through one parole program, nearly 19,000 had criminal arrests; nearly 1,000 had known gang ties and been charged with gang-related federal racketeering offenses and sex crimes, The Center Square reported.

Under the Biden administration multiple parole programs facilitated the illegal entry of more than 14 million foreign nationals from more than 160 countries, including more than two million got aways, The Center Square exclusively reported.

Illegal entries have dropped to their lowest levels in U.S. history after President Donald Trump issued a series of executive orders and implemented border security policies on his first day in office.

Trump declared a national emergency at the southwest and northern borders; declared the U.S. was being invaded; designated cartels and violent criminal gangs as foreign terrorist organizations; reinstated the “Remain in Mexico” policy; surged U.S. Coast Guard resources nationwide; directed the Department of Defense to implement border security measures and deployed 10,000 U.S. troops to the southwest border; implemented a mass deportation policy, including detaining the most violent illegal border crossers at a U.S. Naval facility in Guantanamo Bay; ended Biden-era parole programs; launched a repatriation program for illegal foreign nationals to self-deport, among many other initiatives.