U.S. Border Patrol Encounters at the
Southwest Border: Fact Sheet
May 16, 2023
Congressional Research Service
https://crsreports.congress.gov
R47556
U.S. Border Patrol Encounters at the Southwest Border: Fact Sheet
Introduction
In FY2022, the U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) encountered more than 2.2 million foreign nationals
(aliens)1 crossing into the United States illegally between ports of entry, the largest number in its
history.2 In the first six months of FY2023, USBP encountered nearly 1.1 million migrants. These
migrants were either placed into removal proceedings under Title 8 of the U.S. Code
(immigration law) or expelled from the United States under Title 42 (public health).
Prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, all apprehended migrants3 were
processed under Title 8 and placed into removal proceedings, where they could apply for asylum
or other humanitarian protections. On March 20, 2020, in response to the pandemic, the
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) declared a public health emergency and the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) invoked authority under Title 42 to limit entry
of certain foreign nationals to reduce the risk of the spread of COVID-19, including those
intending to apply for asylum and other humanitarian protections.4 The order directed the
Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS’s) Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to
immediately expel certain unauthorized migrants at land borders back to the country from which
they arrived, or to their country of citizenship, without providing them with the opportunity to
apply for asylum.5 Title 42 implementation changed in protocol and practice throughout its more
than three-year duration.6 The March 2020 public health emergency declared by HHS expired on
May 11, 2023, which also ended Title 42.7 A host of policy changes have been implemented as of
that date.8
1 Foreign national (alien) refers to a person who is not a U.S. citizen or a U.S. national, as defined in 8 U.S.C.
§1101(a)(3). The definition includes persons both legally and not legally present in the United States.
2 All data shown were compiled by Congressional Research Service (CRS) staff using information from Customs and
Border Protection (CBP). Only encounters with USBP are shown. See CBP, Nationwide Encounters: Nationwide
Encounters, at https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/nationwide-encounters.
3 In this fact sheet, migrant refers to a person who has temporarily or permanently crossed an international border
illegally, is no longer residing in his or her country of origin or habitual residence, and is not recognized as a refugee.
Migrants may include asylum seekers. The term migrant is not defined in statute.
4 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “Control of Communicable Diseases; Foreign Quarantine:
Suspension of Introduction of Persons Into United States From Designated Foreign Countries or Places for Public
Health Purposes,” 85 Federal Register 16559-16567, March 20, 2020. The March 2020 order and a subsequent order in
October 2020 were superseded by an August 5, 2021, order: CDC, “Public Health Reassessment and Order Suspending
the Right To Introduce Certain Persons From Countries Where a Quarantinable Communicable Disease Exists,” 86
Federal Register 42828-42841, August 5, 2021.
5 Title 42 was in place at U.S. land borders with Mexico and Canada. In FY2022, more than 95% of USBP enforcement
encounters occurred at the Southwest border. In the first six months of FY2023, more than 99% of such encounters
occurred at the Southwest border.
6 For example, the August 2021 CDC order superseding prior Title 42 orders explicitly excluded unaccompanied
children from being subject to Title 42. Also, for a period in 2021, to reduce the amount of time in CBP custody, USBP
released many members of family units into the United States during enforcement encounters without placing them into
removal proceedings. These migrants were required to report to Immigration and Customs Removal (ICE) within 60
days in order to obtain charging documents. See U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), Southwest Border:
Challenges and Efforts Implementing New Processes for Noncitizen Families, GAO-22-105456, September 2022.
7 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), “COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE),” press release,
March 2, 2023, https://www.hhs.gov/coronavirus/covid-19-public-health-emergency/index.html.
8 Among the policy changes is a final rule issued by DHS and the Department of Justice that created a “rebuttable
presumption of ineligibility” for asylum. The rule applies to migrants arriving at the southwest land border or adjacent
coastal borders without valid documents after transiting through another country if they did not seek asylum in that
third country or avail themselves of certain lawful pathways to enter the United States. See CRS Legal Sidebar
LSB10961, The Biden Administration’s Final Rule on Arriving Aliens Seeking Asylum.
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U.S. Border Patrol Encounters at the Southwest Border: Fact Sheet
USBP Encounters at the Southwest Border
Figure 1 (left panel) shows the annual number of USBP enforcement encounters from FY2012
through the first six months of FY2023. An uptick in encounters in FY2019 was followed by the
onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which stalled migration levels worldwide, and is reflected in a
decline in the number of total encounters. In FY2020, approximately half of all encounters ended
in Title 42 expulsions and half were processed into Title 8 removal proceedings. Total USBP
encounters rose markedly to nearly 1.7 million encounters in FY2021, the highest number ever
recorded at that time.9 In FY2021, 63% of encounters resulted in expulsions. Encounters
increased further in FY2022, to a new record of 2.2 million; 48% of these resulted in
expulsions.10 In the first six months of FY2023, there were nearly 1.1 million encounters, with
40% resulting in expulsions and 60% in removal proceedings.
Figure 1. USBP Encounters by Enforcement Policy
Source: Created by CRS, based on CBP, Nationwide Encounters: Nationwide, Southwest Land Border and
Northern Land Border Encounters, https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/nationwide-encounters.
Notes: Statistics from past months are sometimes adjusted when new data are released. Totals reflected in past
versions of this figure may be adjusted as necessary to reflect these updates.
Monthly border enforcement encounters generally trended upward during the implementation of
Title 42 (Figure 1, right panel).11 Early in the pandemic, the number of encounters was relatively
low, and the majority were expelled under Title 42. The proportion of overall encounters that put
migrants into Title 8 removal proceedings began to surpass the number expelled under Title 42 in
April 2022 and continued through December 2022. In January, February, and March 2023, Title
42 expulsions surpassed the number of migrants put into Title 8 removal proceedings.12
9 See USBP, “USBP Southwest Border Sectors, Total Encounters by Fiscal Year, FY1960-FY2022,”
https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/assets/documents/2021-Aug/US59B8~1.PDF.
10 Encounter statistics refer to counts of interactions between USBP and migrants, and not counts of unique individuals.
People who were expelled under Title 42 and attempted to enter the country a second time or more were counted each
time. Unlike those processed under Title 8, where there are legal penalties for being apprehended more than once, Title
42 carried no such penalty, so those expelled may have tried to enter the United States multiple times.
11 During the period Title 42 was in effect, recidivism (more than one illegal entry attempt in a year) more than doubled
over the period FY2015-FY2021, in large part due to the lack of penalties for those expelled if they attempted entry
again. See CBP, CBP Enforcement Statistics Fiscal Year 2023, https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/cbp-enforcement-
statistics.
12 These shifts in trends are, in part, related to new policies put into place that affect encountered migrants from Cuba,
Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. In October 2022, a parole process was initiated for Venezuelans, and a similar
(continued...)
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U.S. Border Patrol Encounters at the Southwest Border: Fact Sheet
Encounters by Demographic Category
CBP classifies encountered migrants into three categories: single adults (a migrant not traveling
with a child under age 18), family units (at least one parent or legal guardian and at least one
child), and unaccompanied children (UC). Historically, single adults have comprised the vast
majority of migrants encountered by USBP; in FY2012, they made up 90% of all encounters
(Figure 2). However, in FY2019, family units accounted for 56% of all encounters, a slight
majority for the first time, while single adults and UC accounted for 35% and 9%, respectively.
In FY2020, the demographic composition of encountered migrants returned to the previous trend
of being mostly single adults. In FY2021 and FY2022 there were still nearly half a million
encounters with individuals in family units, which was on par with FY2019, but constituted a
smaller proportion of overall encounters (27% and 22% of all encounters, respectively). In the
first six months of FY2023, there were nearly 241,000 encounters with individuals in family
units, accounting for 23% of all encounters. In each of FY2021 and FY2022, USBP encountered
roughly 150,000 UC (9% and 7% of encounters, respectively), almost double the previous record
of 76,000 in FY2019 (9%).13 In the first six months of FY2023, USBP encountered nearly 68,000
UC, which was 6% of all encounters during that time.
Figure 2. USBP Encounters by Demographic Category, FY2012-FY2023 YTD
Source: Created by CRS, based on CBP, Nationwide Encounters: Nationwide, Southwest Land Border and
Northern Land Border Encounters, https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/nationwide-encounters.
Encounters by Country of Citizenship
An important shift in recent years has been in the changing composition of encountered migrants’
origin countries. Figure 3 shows encounter trends among three migrant origin country categories:
Mexico, the Northern Triangle countries (El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras), and all other
countries combined into a single category, termed historically atypical. For most of its history,
USBP primarily encountered migrants from Mexico, but in the past decade, a growing share of
encounters involved migrants from the Northern Triangle. The aggregate number of migrants
from the Northern Triangle first surpassed that of Mexico in FY2014, and in FY2019 the number
process was initiated in January 2023 for nationals from Cuba, Haiti, and Nicaragua. These processes allow certain
individuals outside the United States from these four countries to apply for permission to enter the United States
temporarily. Others encountered from the four countries were expelled to Mexico under Title 42, by agreement with
Mexico. See DHS, “DHS Continues to Prepare for End of Title 42; Announces New Border Enforcement Measures and
Additional Safe and Orderly Processes,” https://www.dhs.gov/news/2023/01/05/dhs-continues-prepare-end-title-42-
announces-new-border-enforcement-measures-and.
13 For more information on UC, see CRS Report R43599, Unaccompanied Alien Children: An Overview.
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U.S. Border Patrol Encounters at the Southwest Border: Fact Sheet
far surpassed that of Mexico. However, since then—with the exception of FY2021—the number
of encounters of Mexican migrants has exceeded that of Northern Triangle migrants.
Figure 3. USBP Encounters by Migrant Country of Citizenship, FY2007-FY2023 YTD
Source: Created by CRS, based on CBP, Nationwide Encounters: Nationwide, Southwest Land Border and
Northern Land Border Encounters, https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/nationwide-encounters.
The greatest growth in the past five years has been of migrants from historically atypical
countries. In FY2011, fewer than 8,000 encountered migrants (3% of all encounters) originated
from historically atypical countries. In contrast, by FY2022 the nearly 1 million migrants from
historically atypical countries constituted 43% of total encounters. In the first six months of
FY2023, migrants from historically atypical countries (557,310) accounted for 53% of total
encounters (1,055,320).14
During the period that Title 42 was in effect, the Mexican government had agreed to accept
certain migrants expelled from the United States based on their nationality. DHS sometimes
expelled other migrants to their home countries, but detention and removal by air transportation
often requires more DHS resources. In addition, DHS could not easily apply Title 42 to migrants
from certain atypical countries due to strained diplomatic relationships between these countries
and the United States; therefore, they often were processed under Title 8.15
14 In FY2022, the largest number of encounters were of migrants from Mexico, comprising 34% (738,780) of the total,
followed by Guatemala (10%, 228,220) Cuba (10%, 220,321), Honduras (9%, 199,186), and Venezuela (9%, 187,286).
In the first half of FY2023, the top five countries of origin for encountered migrants were Mexico, comprising 31%
(325,846) of the total, followed by Cuba (11%, 112,582), Nicaragua (9%, 94,407), Colombia (8%, 88,121), and
Guatemala (8%, 82,835).
15 See DHS and Office of Inspector General, ICE Faces Barriers in Timely Repatriation of Detained Aliens, OIG-19-
28, March 11, 2019; and DHS, Privacy Impact Assessment Update for the Enforcement Integrate Database (EID),
DHS/ICE/PIA-015(i), December 3, 2018.
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U.S. Border Patrol Encounters at the Southwest Border: Fact Sheet
Author Information
Audrey Singer
Sylvia L. Bryan
Specialist in Immigration Policy
Research Assistant
Disclaimer
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