Southern Border Crossings Hit Record High — I Will End This Humanitarian and National Security Crisis

U.S. border officials encountered more migrants crossing the southern border in fiscal year 2023 than any other year on record. This is the third record-setting year in a row.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported more than 2.47 million encounters at the southern border in fiscal year 2023, exceeding the 2.3 million in 2022 and 1.7 million in 2021. 

CBP recorded nearly 270,000 encounters at the southern border in September alone, setting a record for a single month.

Border officials have also reported about 1.6 million known "gotaways" — those who have entered the country but have not been apprehended — since President Biden took office.

Since the new fiscal year started October 1, CBP has noted more than 1,000 “gotaways” every single day. “These are individuals whose identity and purpose we do not know,” CBP chief Jason Owen warned. 

“When you look at those numbers of gotaways, that is just ridiculous,” said Chris Clem, retired chief patrol agent with U.S. Border Patrol. “Who is that population? Criminal aliens, would-be terrorists? We just don’t know.”

CBP encountered 169 migrants on the FBI’s terror watch list at the southern border in fiscal year 2023, exceeding the last six fiscal years combined, and arrested 18 on the terror watch list in September. Imagine how many slipped through.

And according to a memo just issued by a CBP intelligence unit, “[f]oreign fighters motivated by ideology or mercenary soldiers of fortune may attempt to obfuscate travel to or from the US to or from countries in the Middle East through Mexico.”

In short, our southern border is the site of a humanitarian and national security crisis that is rapidly getting worse. The crisis is spreading far beyond the border, as a flood of migrants has overwhelmed the resources of cities as far away as New York. 

Biden’s woefully inadequate border policies have turned every city in America into a “border town.”

The Biden administration is more focused on securing Ukraine's border than our own. Meanwhile, members of Congress bicker among themselves and cannot seem to get anything done for the American people.

We need a President who can focus on issues at home and abroad, and who will show the leadership necessary to solve big problems.

We cannot let the border crisis continue to fester. No nation can have security and prosperity while millions of people pour across an unsecured border in complete chaos. 

As President, I will secure the southern border and enact a range of short-term and long-term policies that will put an end to the humanitarian and national security fiasco unfolding there. And I will work with other countries to stabilize international relations and stem the tide of migrants. 

I will also eliminate the influence of the criminal cartels that have turned immigration, drugs, and human trafficking into a multi-billion dollar business that victimizes both American citizens and the immigrants themselves. The suffering of migrants at the hands of cartels, human traffickers, and others who exploit them is heartbreaking.

At the same time, I will build wide doors for those who wish to enter the country legally and in an orderly fashion, so that the U.S. can continue to be a beacon of hope to the world.

The record numbers of migrants haphazardly streaming across the southern border — more each year of Biden’s presidency — highlight the urgent need for new leadership in the White House.