CBP reports illegal crossings at southern border decreased by 53% in 2020

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Wednesday published their Fiscal Year 2020 statistics for Southwest border migration and enforcement, reporting a substantial decrease in encounters with border crossers.

The amount of CBP encounters with those illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border shrunk by 53% in FY 2020. According to the report, CBP encountered 458,088 people illegally crossing the border this past fiscal year, a stark contrast to the 977,509 reported in FY 2019.

The COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the data was clear as day. A steep drop in border apprehensions was reported in April, with only 16,182 apprehended border crossers in comparison to the 30,389 in March. The numbers, however, neared 30,000 by July.

Notably, President Donald Trump on March 21 ordered CBP to prohibit “the entry of certain persons who potentially pose a health risk, either by virtue of being subject to previously announced travel restrictions or because they unlawfully entered the country to bypass health screening measures.”

In terms of demographics, the reports states that “single adult males from Mexico accounted for 56 percent of migrants encountered this year, a significant change from a FY19, when 64 percent of the encounters were individuals from the Northern Triangle countries.”

Not to mention, “single adults accounted for 77 percent of the total encounters this year, compared to 38 percent last year,” according to the report.

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