Record numbers of illegal crossings piled up for years under President Biden, and now a Fox News host says the officials behind that record belong behind bars.
Quick Take
- Border Patrol logged 2.47 million southwest-border encounters in fiscal year 2023, the highest ever recorded.
- Total enforcement encounters topped 10.8 million nationwide from fiscal year 2021 through fiscal year 2024.
- Crossings dropped 30% in a single month after Biden signed a tougher asylum order in June 2024.
- Former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas insists he followed the law and used resources effectively.
Record-Breaking Border Numbers Under Biden
Fox News host Rob Schmitt said the people responsible for the border crisis “should be in prison for what they did,” echoing years of conservative anger over Biden-era immigration failures. The numbers back up the frustration. Customs and Border Protection recorded 2,475,669 southwest-border encounters in fiscal year 2023 alone, the highest total ever logged by the agency.
That record did not stand by itself. Enforcement encounters climbed from 1,956,519 in fiscal year 2021 to 2,766,582 in fiscal year 2022, then to 3,201,144 in fiscal year 2023, before settling at 2,901,142 in fiscal year 2024. A House Homeland Security Committee factsheet puts the full nationwide total since 2021 at more than 10.8 million encounters.
Sudden Drop Reveals What Was Possible All Along
The Congressional Research Service found the border system was “unduly strained” for years, with daily encounters blowing past legal suspension thresholds almost every month from January 2021 to April 2024. That changed fast once Biden finally acted. After his June 2024 executive order restricting asylum, Border Patrol encounters between ports of entry fell 29% in one month, dropping to 83,536, the lowest monthly count since January 2021.
Total southwest-border crossings fell 30% that same month, hitting 88,612. For conservatives, that sharp turnaround proves the crisis was never unavoidable. If the administration could cut illegal crossings by nearly a third in 30 days, critics argue, it could have done so years earlier and chose not to.
Mayorkas Defends Record Despite Backlash
Mayorkas has repeatedly rejected claims that he abandoned enforcement on purpose. “What we want to do and what we do do is enforce the law,” he told NPR. He also testified that no administration in history has ever met the strict legal definition of full operational control, and that his department deployed resources to “gain the greatest amount of control that we can.”
Mayorkas defended his use of parole programs as lawful and case-by-case, saying they let Homeland Security screen migrants before they reached the border and cut smugglers out of the process. He told House Republicans that only Congress could give his department the extra legal authority and funding needed to truly secure the border, pointing blame away from his own agency.
Calls For Accountability Grow Louder
Nothing in the official CBP or congressional data proves Biden officials committed crimes, broke specific laws, or deliberately lied to the public. The records show outcomes and policy timing, not sworn admissions or court findings. Calling for prison time, while understandable given the scale of the crisis, goes beyond what the current public evidence can prove on its own.
Still, the raw numbers speak for themselves. Millions of encounters, a system strained past its breaking point for years, and a 30% drop the moment real enforcement kicked in. Conservatives see that pattern as proof that the open-border years were a choice, not an accident, and they want Congress to keep digging until someone is held responsible.
Sources:
cbp.gov, congress.gov, pfluger.house.gov, npr.org, homeland.house.gov, factcheck.org
