Apprehensions of illegal aliens along America\u2019s\nsouthern border during fiscal 2020 ran well below last year\u2019s total, but the\nnumbers are trending back up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
COVID-19 sharply reduced illegal border\ncrossings in April and May. Apprehensions totaled 40,380 for those two months,\ncompared with 253,531 during the same period in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since then, encounters with U.S. Customs and Border Protection<\/a> (CBP) have been climbing, though still under last year\u2019s levels. With September\u2019s final figures pending, illegal crossings for the fiscal year were on track to be the lowest since 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Coronavirus notwithstanding, border-security\nagreements between the U.S. and Central American governments and Mexico have\nchilled some illicit travel plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As FAIR<\/a> recently reported, more than 3,000\u00a0economic migrants<\/a>\u00a0started out from Honduras last month bound for America. Unlike previous caravans, this attempt at an organized large-scale incursion disbanded before it could get to Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lower migrant numbers and\nchanging demographics — fewer families and more single adults — are freeing\nup CBP agents to intercept more narcotics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The resource-intensive tasks\nof attending to family migrants, including medical treatment and even changing\ndiapers, hampered CBP\u2019s ability to halt the flow of illegal drag traffic into\nthe country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Notably, seizures of the\ndeadly drug fentanyl fell 43 percent between 2018 and 2019. By July 2020,\nhowever, fentanyl seizures were already at 198 percent of last year\u2019s total. In\naddition, CBP seizures of currency, which fuels illicit drug activity, are 10\npercent higher than a year ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLower numbers of aliens entering illegally \u2014 and especially fewer children and adults traveling with children \u2014 is freeing up Border Patrol agents to focus on their core mission of protecting the American people in the interior of the United States. We are all safer for their efforts,\u201d concluded a report by the Center for Immigration Studies<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It goes to show how fewer illegal aliens can be\na net benefit to the country in more ways than one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Apprehensions of illegal aliens along America\u2019s southern border during fiscal 2020 ran well below last year\u2019s total, but the numbers are trending back up. COVID-19 sharply reduced illegal border crossings in April and May. Apprehensions totaled 40,380 for those two months, compared with 253,531 during the same period in 2019. Since then, encounters with U.S.<\/p>\n