More than 1.7 million migrants have been apprehended along the southern border in the past 12 months, according to a new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) data released Friday.

CBS News reported that the number of migrant apprehensions in fiscal year 2021, which ended last September, was the highest figure in any fiscal year in U.S. history.

Data showed that the CBP has detained 1,734,686 illegal immigrants attempting to enter the southwest border between October last year and September this year, New York Post reported. Among them were 145,000 unaccompanied migrant children that mostly came from Central America.

The CBP reported 1,643,679 migrant apprehensions in fiscal year 2000, which started in October 1999 and ended on September 30, 2000.

The latest DHS data also showed a decrease in the monthly migrant encountered in September at 192,001. It marked an 8.5 percent decline from the 209,840 arrests in August and a 10.1 percent decrease from the 12-month high of 213,593 apprehensions in July.

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CBP Says 'Expulsions' Lead to Increase on Border Crossing Attempts

The Biden administration has been using Title 42 expulsion policy, which the Trump administration put into effect in March 2020 on public health grounds, to quickly expel migrants caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

Reports said around 61 percent of the migrants encountered in the past 12 months were expelled to Mexico or their homeland under Title 42. Border officials also used Title 42 to carry out more than one million expulsions in the past fiscal year. 

But the CBP said Friday that Title 42 contributed to the record-high number of migrants making multiple border crossing attempts. The agency noted that many migrants tried to enter the U.S. unlawfully more than once after being expelled.

"The large number of expulsions during the pandemic has contributed to a larger-than-usual number of migrants making multiple border crossing attempts, which means that total encounters somewhat overstate the number of unique individuals arriving at the border," the CBP said in a statement.

In September alone, the CBP noted that 26 percent of migrants interdicted had been previously taken into U.S. custody.

Former DHS, CBP Officials Slam Biden Over Record High Migrant Encounters

Former DHS and CBP officials on Friday slammed President Biden over the new border crisis numbers. Former acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf said Biden made a bad situation on the border much worse by adopting a lax border policy.

Chad noted that the Biden administration chose to open the border by eliminating effective and humane border security policies that were working.

He said Biden did not replace those policies with alternatives and "then process the subsequent historic flows of illegal aliens" into the U.S. as quickly as possible. 

"Nine months after President Joe Biden took office, his administration's border security strategy has failed," Chad noted.

Former CBP commissioner Mark Morgan said the Biden administration has created the crisis because they see a "political benefit in mass illegal migration."

Former DHS deputy chief of staff Lora Ries noted that the open-borders agenda of the Biden administration is "destructive, inhumane, and unsustainable."

Despite the high numbers of migrant encounters, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki reiterated on Friday that people should remember that the president worked on migration issues, asserting that Joe Biden worked on them his entire career.

"The president has worked on these issues throughout his entire career and is well-versed in every aspect of our immigration system, including the border... that includes when he was Vice President," Psaki noted.

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This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Joshua Summers

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