CLAIM: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) claimed at Tuesday evening’s vice presidential debate that “border crossings are down” from when former President Donald Trump left office in January 2021.
VERDICT: Slightly true, mostly misleading. While fewer illegal aliens were arrested by Border Patrol between Ports of Entry in August of this year compared to December 2020, Trump’s last full month in office, Walz’s claim purposefully excludes the number of migrants arriving and being processed at Ports of Entry thanks to a dramatic change in federal policy.
“[Border] crossings are down compared to when Donald Trump left office,” Walz said.
In December 2020, Trump’s last full month in office, more than 71,000 illegal aliens were arrested by Border Patrol crossing between Ports of Entry at the United States-Mexico border.
In August of this year, about 58,000 illegal aliens were arrested by Border Patrol crossing between Ports of Entry at the southern border.
Left out of the equation by Walz, though, is President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’s opening of a parole pipeline where migrants are funneled to the border’s Ports of Entry to apply for parole in the hopes of getting released into the U.S. interior.
The Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Office of Field Operations has jurisdiction over Ports of Entry and therefore migrant encounters at these ports are counted in a separate category.
When adding these migrant encounters together with arrests of illegal aliens, Biden and Harris are continuing to oversee far more illegal immigration at the southern border than any other presidential administration in American history — including Trump.
For example, in December 2020, fewer than 2,900 migrants were encountered at the border’s Ports of Entry. In August of this year, nearly 50,000 migrants were encountered at Ports of Entry.
A recent House Homeland Security Committee report suggested that about 85 percent of migrants arriving at the border, whether at Ports of Entry or between Ports of Entry, are being released into the U.S. interior under Biden and Harris.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at
