Arrests at southern border rose slightly in August

Arrests at the southern border ticked up last month for the first time since the rollout of a new Biden administration policy limiting access to asylum.

The Border Patrol made about 58,000 arrests between ports of entry in August, a figure that hovers near all-time lows but is also a 3 percent jump over the prior month.

The Biden administration in June rolled out a policy to suspend asylum when border crossings reach a certain threshold, blocking access to the protections for those fleeing persecution and danger. Advocacy groups have challenged the legality of the program.

Border crossings initially declined sharply in the wake of the program, falling more than 50 percent, and Biden administration officials on Monday waved away any concerns about the small increase in crossings.

“The data published today by U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows that since President Biden announced new, decisive executive actions to secure the border on June 4, encounters between ports of entry have dropped significantly and remain at their lowest level in years – July and August saw the lowest encounter levels since September 2020,” White House spokesperson Angelo Fernández Hernández said in a statement.

An all-time high of 250,000 arrests at the border was reached in December, but they’ve largely been on the decline since. The August figures are 68 percent lower than at the same time last year.

Also last month, nearly 45,000 people entered the U.S. after making an appointment on the CBP One App, which lets migrants schedule an appointment to present at a border crossing, where they can make an initial bid to seek asylum.