Border Patrol Chief Says US on Track to Hit 1M Migrant Encounters in 6 Months

Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz on Tuesday said that the U.S. is currently on track to hit one million migrant encounters so far in Fiscal Year 2022 – a number that shows that continued migrant traffic is already outpacing last year’s staggering numbers.

“Probably in the next two or three days we’ll get over a million encounters or apprehensions along the southwest border,” Ortiz said at a border security conference in San Antonio, Texas. The current fiscal year began in October.

Ortiz described a situation on the ground in which Border Patrol is short on staff, is facing additional challenges due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and where “every sector is busier than they were back in ‘21.” He also said that agents have encountered migrants from 157 different countries {snip}

There were 164,973 migrant encounters in February, up dramatically from 101,099 in Feb. 21 — a month that preceded a massive surge in the spring and summer months. The February numbers mean that there were 838, 685 encounters since the fiscal year began in October. March’s numbers have not yet been released but are expected to outpace February’s {snip}

In the entirety of FY 2021, there were over 1.7 million migrant encounters {snip}

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