U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) were engaged in a record number of encounters of people at the southern border in December 2021.
The total number for the month of December, 178,840, is an all-time high for December since the agency started tracking southern border arrests in 2000.
Data released by the CBP show 518,360 encounters since fiscal year 2022 began in October 2021, already higher than the 458,088 encounters reported in all of 2020.
The second-highest total for December came in 2020, when approximately 73,994 were apprehended by CBP. Before that, the next-highest total occurred in December of 2000, when 71,252 were apprehended, data reports.
In November of 2021, a similar pattern played out. CBP numbers show the organization arrested 174,744 people at the southern border that month, the highest number since 76,000 were arrested in 2000.
While border encounters reach monthly highs, the number of family units crossing the border increased by 15% from November 2021 to December 2021, totaling nearly 52,000 in December.
Encounters of unaccompanied children decreased by 14%, with 11,921 encounters in December, down from 13,937 in November.
According to Pew Research in 2019, Austin was one of the prime destinations for unauthorized migrants once they entered the United States between 2007 and 2016.
Austin ranked 19th overall on the list. Houston and Dallas also made the list, ranking third and fourth, respectively. The ranking was determined based on estimated population as of 2016.
