Border Patrol agents apprehended nearly 650,000 migrants during the first six months of the current fiscal year in the five Texas-based sectors. This is up from the record-shattering pace set last year when agents apprehended nearly 627,000 migrants who crossed the border between ports of entry.
During the first six months of Fiscal Year 2023, which began on October 1, 2022, agents assigned to the El Paso, Big Bend, Del Rio, Laredo, and Rio Grande Valley Sectors apprehended 648,465 migrants who crossed the border between ports of entry, according to the March Southwest Land Border Encounters report. During the same period last year, agents apprehended 626,793 migrants. This year’s apprehensions represent an increase of nearly 3.5 percent over last year’s six-month total.
The El Paso Sector reported the largest increase of migrant apprehensions of any of the nine southwest border sectors with the arrest of 265,037 migrants. This is up by 134 percent over the same period last year. This was the largest percentage and number increase of any sector in the nation.
The Del Rio Sector also reported a significant increase in the number of migrants apprehended. So far this fiscal year, agents arrested 217,849 migrants compared to 195,299 during the same period last year.
