More than 12,000 migrants crossed over the U.S. southern border — more than 10,200 of those illegally — to set a single-day record, according to a report.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) told Fox News that Tuesday's record-setting influx raised the total number of migrants in custody to more than 22,000 by Wednesday morning.
Further, the number adds to the records already set during fiscal year 2023. The 2.4 million encounters in 2023 is a record; October's number of 240,000 encounters set a record for that month; the 260,000 encounters in September set a record, according to Fox News.
The surge also forced the closing of two different international crossing points last week: one a bridge in Eagle Pass, Texas, and one in Lukeville, Arizona.
"So they're kind of forced to (enter) between ports of entry if they want to seek asylum in the United States, which is just creating a lot of chaos, both for the agency and also for the organizations trying to respond," Erika Pinheiro, executive director of migrant services at Al Otro, told the New York Post.
That continued chaos comes amid a pivotal time in the discussion of border reform on Capitol Hill as lawmakers are embroiled in a partisan fight over attaching comprehensive border policy changes as a prerequisite to passing President Joe Biden's $106 billion supplemental aid package for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.
Biden said Wednesday that the "border system is broken" and that he's amenable to "significant compromises" on fixing his administration's policies, which Republicans say are warped and caused the chaos in the first place.
However, Senate Democrats continue to balk at meaningful border reform, rejecting the elements of House's H.R. 2 that could overhaul the system and stem the flow of illegals.
"Frankly, you could really do things — do a great service for the country — with one sentence: No money can be used to process or release into the country any new migrants," House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told Newsmax on Wednesday. "You do that, you stop the problem."