STARTLING STATS FACTSHEET: Biden and Harris’ Border Crisis Still Wreaking Havoc—at the Borders and in the Interior

Washington, D.C. - Today, the House Committee on Homeland Security released its August "Startling Stats" factsheet reflecting the August 2024 U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) border encounter data. According to CBP, total nationwide encounters totaled nearly 159,000 in August, including more than 107,000 at the Southwest border, an increase of more than three percent from July's Southwest border numbers. Total nationwide encounters under the Biden-Harris administration now exceed more than 10.3 million, compared to just 3.1 million from Fiscal Years (FY) 2017-2020 combined. Notably, this does not include the roughly two million known gotaways recorded by CBP since the start of FY21.

The crisis at America's borders is still out of control. The Biden-Harris administration is simply playing a mass-parole shell game, incentivizing hundreds of thousands of otherwise-inadmissible aliens to cross at ports of entry instead of between them. Roughly two-thirds of all nationwide encounters in August were recorded at ports of entry, compared to only around 15 percent in August 2021. Monthly encounters at ports of entry alone have not totaled fewer than 90,000 since February 2023. Since January 2023, more than 1.3 million inadmissible aliens have been granted entry through the illegal CBP One and Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan (CHNV) mass-parole programs President Biden and his "border czar" Vice President Harris have created.
The same disastrous catch-and-release policies that let the killers of Laken Riley, Rachel Morin, and Jocelyn Nungaray loose into the country are also still in use by this administration--regardless of the consequences. Throughout the month of August, reports showed members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua had brutally taken over multiple apartment complexes in Aurora, Colorado. Jhonardy Jose Pacheco-Chirino, the alleged 'shot-caller' of the gang crossed Southwest border in 2022, was caught and released into the United States. At least one of these alleged gang members entered the United States using the CBP One app. Last month, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arresteda Haitian national who entered the U.S. in June 2023 via the CHNV mass-parole program. In March, he was charged with the rape of a 15-year-old girl in a migrant shelter in Boston. On August 13, Peruvian gang leader, Gianfranco Torres-Navarro, wanted for the murder of at least 23 people in his home country was arrested in New York three months after he was caught and released at the Southwest border.
Key Facts:

• Since February 2021, there have been more than 10.3 million encounters nationwide and more than 8.3 million encounters at the Southwest border.
• Nationwide border encounters by the Office of Field Operations (OFO) at ports of entry (98,274) increased more than 185% from August 2021.
• Since January 2023, 813,000 inadmissible aliens have scheduled appointments with the CBP One app.
• Since the program began, roughly 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans have been mass paroled under the administration's CHNV parole program at ports of entry.
• 388 illegal aliens on the terrorist watchlist have been apprehended between ports of entry at the Southwest and northern borders since FY21.
• CBP has recorded more than 520,000 encounters of unaccompanied alien children (UACs) at the Southwest border since Biden and Harris took office, an unprecedented number.

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