President Joe Biden predictably released his record-breaking illegal migrant border crossing data Friday night, mitigating news coverage, but the Republican National Committee pounced Saturday morning.
More than 2.3 million illegal immigrants have crossed the border in fiscal year 2022, breaking the record Biden's administration set a year ago by 37%. The total of the two record-setting years of illegal migration under the Biden administration is now 4.7 million.
That figure includes 3.8 million illegals apprehended by Customs and Border Protection and more than 900,000 known gotaways that have escaped Border Patrol. That suggests the number of illegal migrants coming to the U.S. under Biden is likely higher than even his administration reports, border officials say.
"This is a failure," RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel wrote in a statement. "Joe Biden and Democrats created a humanitarian crisis at our southern border that only worsens, yet they can't be bothered to fix it.
"As Democrats turn a blind eye to the devastation they created, Americans face the consequences every day as deadly fentanyl pours into our neighborhoods and crime surges across the country. Republicans know families deserve to feel safe, but it's clear Democrats couldn't care less."
Former Trump administration border leaders had vowed to release the border crossing data through end of fiscal year 2022 (Sept. 30) by Tuesday if the administration had not released it, but they predicted it would ultimately come Friday to avert heavy news coverage.
The Biden administration's 2022 illegal migrant total is a 419% increase over the Trump administration.
"Former Trump immigration officials Ken Cuccinelli, Mark Morgan, and Tom Homan say they will release CBP's September border arrest figures themselves if the Biden admin fails to do so by Tuesday (under Biden, CBP has taken longer to release the monthly stats)," a Reuters reporter tweeted Friday before the numbers arrived.
The numbers are potentially tough for Democratic candidates ahead of the midterm elections. Early voting is under way in many states already.
The September totals were the highest number of illegal crossings in Department of Homeland Security history, which spans two decades sent put in place by former President George W. Bush after 9/11.
Additional data lowlights from the RNC press release:
- 374% increase from the average number of September apprehensions during the Trump administration.
- 11,900 unaccompanied children were apprehended.
- 128,121 illegal immigrants were apprehended from countries outside the Northern Triangle and Mexico, showing that Biden's crisis is global.
- 98 people on the terror watchlist have been apprehended trying to enter the U.S. between ports of entry since the fiscal year began last October.
- 1,826 pounds of deadly fentanyl (414 million doses – enough to kill everyone in the U.S.) and 10,612 pounds of methamphetamine were seized at the southern border in September alone, with much more likely getting through.
- More fentanyl has crossed the border in the last two months under Biden than in all of fiscal year 2019 under former President Donald Trump's leadership.
"If they're seizing a lot, it's because a lot is coming in," Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Joshua Sharfstein said in a statement, according to the RNC.