Arizona Border Migrant Encounters Fall to Lowest Level of Year as Election Approaches

As the presidential election nears, migrant apprehensions in the Tucson Sector hit their lowest level of the current fiscal year. Agents apprehended only 2,900 migrants during the past week, according to the sector chief.

Tucson Sector Chief Patrol Agent John Modlin posted a graphic on social media showing the marked decline in weekly migrant apprehensions. During the most recently weekly recap, Modlin reported the apprehension of 2,900 migrants. This is down from 7,800 migrants apprehended during the last week of May.

Migrant apprehensions are down from a peak in the third week of December when agents encountered more than 19,000 migrants in a single week, Breitbart Texas reported.

The San Diego and Tucson Sectors have been swapping first-place honors for the past few months as migrant crossings from westward from Texas. Tucson Sector agents apprehended more than 22,000 migrants in June, according to an unofficial report reviewed by Breitbart Texas.

Tucson Sector agents still maintain the busiest Border Patrol Sector title with a year-to-date total approaching 281,000 migrants. Last year’s busiest sector, the Del Rio Sector, fell to fourth place this year with increased enforcement activity in Texas and Mexico, forcing migrant crossing patterns westward.

So far this year, Border Patrol agents along the southwest border encountered nearly 1.4 million migrants who illegally crossed the border between ports of entry. This is down slightly from year-to-date figures from the prior two record-shattering years.

A recent gambit by the Biden administration to give the appearance of border enforcement yielded the lowest month of migrant apprehensions of his term, Breitbart Texas reported. Border Patrol agents apprehended just over 82,000 migrants who illegally crossed the border between ports of entry in June.

In January 2021, President Joe Biden signed executive orders eliminating or rescinding the successful policies of the Trump administration, Breitbart News reported at that time. During that month, Border Patrol agents apprehended just over 78,000 migrants who illegally crossed the southwest border between ports of entry. That was the last time that CBP apprehension reports showed a five-digit number — until June 2024. In February 2021, agents apprehended more than 101,000 migrants, Breitbart Texas reported.

The apprehension numbers do not include more than 1.1 million migrants who the Biden administration has granted immigration parole under a program never authorized or funded by Congress, Breitbart News reported in June. The parole pipeline brings foreign nationals to the U.S. through the administration’s “CBP One” mobile app and “humanitarian parole,” Breitbart’s John Binder wrote.

The apprehension numbers also do not include more than 194,000 known got-aways so far this year, Breitbart Texas reported.

Bob Price is the Breitbart Texas-Border team’s associate editor and senior news contributor. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday morning talk show. He also serves as president of Blue Wonder Gun Care Products.