Border Patrol agents detected 16 more terrorist suspects sneaking into the U.S. last month, bringing the total to 96 this fiscal year.
With five months still to go in the fiscal year, that figure is already nearly equal to the 98 caught in all of 2022 — a number that had obliterated all previous records.
Since the start of fiscal year 2021, agents at the southern border have detected 209 people on the terrorist watchlist. By contrast, from 2017 through 2020 they detected a total of 11.
The terrorism numbers were revealed Wednesday as part of Homeland Security’s monthly update on illegal immigration at the borders.
Customs and Border Protection reported 275,448 encounters with unauthorized migrants. That included a record surge of Venezuelans who rushed the border, defying Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s insistence that his new “parole” program for Venezuelans, Haitians, Cubans and Nicaraguans had solved the situation.
All told, the Border Patrol reported catching 182,114 illegal immigrants at the southern border and 977 more at the northern border. Officers at ports of entry encountered another 29,287 unauthorized migrants at the southern border and 13,155 at the northern border.
But the big number came at ports of entry not along the borders. Nearly 50,000 unauthorized migrants came through airports and seaports in April.
That represents a major shift in the patterns of illegal immigrants — and one Mr. Mayorkas has pushed for.
He has created what he calls “lawful pathways” allowing migrants who lack a visa or other permit to enter nonetheless. Most of them are welcomed via his power of “parole,” which grants them short-term permission to be in the U.S.
The April numbers came before the end of Title 42, the border expulsion authority that expired on May 11 with the end of the coronavirus pandemic emergency.
In the days ahead of the expiration, the border saw its worst days ever, with more than 10,000 people pouring in each day.
But in the time since the expiration, things have cooled from catastrophic to merely crisis levels of between 4,000 and 5,000 people a day, officials said.
“As part of our planning for the end of the Title 42 public health order, we have surged resources, technology, and personnel to safely and orderly manage challenges along the southern border – while at the same time, maintaining a persistent focus on our other missions to ensure national and economic security,” Troy Miller, acting commissioner at CBP, said in releasing the April numbers.
Among the worrying numbers in April was a 43% surge in illegal immigrants traveling as families who were caught by the Border Patrol.
The number of unaccompanied juveniles ticked down slightly, to 11,085 for the month.
Authorities believe that the more people caught, the more are getting through. That’s true of both drugs and specific classes of migrants such as the terrorism suspects.
The 16 new terrorism suspects nabbed at the southern border by agents in April came after 11 were apprehended in March, 16 in February and 15 in January.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.