Border encounters continue to hover at about half of what they were before the lifting of Title 42, Biden administration officials said Wednesday, a significant drop following the rescission of a policy that effectively barred asylum seekers.
“Since May 12, the U.S. Border Patrol has experienced a steady decrease in daily encounters,” Blas Nuñez-Neto, chief operating officer at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said on a call Wednesday with reporters.
Encounters are defined as interactions between U.S. border officials and foreign nationals who cross the border without prior authorization.
Ahead of the lifting of Title 42 on May 11, border encounters were around 10,000 individuals per day, a total that is now averaging around 4,400 people each day, with figures the last two days under 4,000.
“This represents a decrease of 56 percent, or less than half of the average encountered in the four days leading up to the lifting of Title 42,” Nuñez-Neto said.
“However, I want to stress once again that it is still too soon to draw any firm conclusions here about where these trends will go in the coming days and weeks.”
With the end of Title 42, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has returned to the use of expedited processing under its Title 8 authorities. The Title 8 process creates a paper trail that Title 42 lacked and comes with a potential five-year bar on reentry.
That has been paired with a program started earlier this year that allows Cubans, Venezuelans, Nicaraguans and Haitians to apply for temporary entrance to the U.S., but they must have a valid passport and secure a U.S.-based financial sponsor. Nuñez-Neto said since May 12, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has processed 5,000 applicants to the program through the CBP One app.
Nuñez-Neto noted that the nationalities at the border have shifted following the change in policy, with Mexicans now representing about a quarter of those encountered, though overall numbers are dropping.
“The top three nationalities we are currently seeing at the border are 1,000 individuals a day from Mexico, 510 a day from Colombia, and 470 a day from Guatemala. By contrast, in the days before the lifting of Title 42, we were seeing 2,400 individuals a day from Venezuela, 1,900 a day from Mexico, and 1,400 a day from Colombia,” he said.
Though encounters have dropped, authorities have returned thousands of migrants to either their home countries, or to Mexico, for those from Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua or Haiti.
The dip in encounters comes as numerous Republican governors have sent their own personnel to the border, with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) arguing they need to send backup for an anticipated spike in migration.
“There is outstanding coordination taking place at the local level each and every day. We’ve seen, however, at times, that Governor DeSantis and Governor Abbott take actions that are being done really for purely political reasons and that do not involve the kind of coordination that we really need to see at the border,” Nuñez-Neto said.
“We are confident in our men and women on the front lines’ ability to conduct their border operations in a safe, humane and secure manner. And we again call on the governors to make sure that any steps they take are done in coordination with our federal personnel.”