The number of migrants who were apprehended at the southern border crept up more in Texas in August than it did in Arizona or California while plunging at a higher rate in the Grand Canyon State than it did here compared to the counts in December.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported on Tuesday that federal agents recorded 28,873 migrants in Texas illegally last month - a mark that was 11 percent higher than the tally here in July. The Border Patrol apprehended 13,640 migrants in Arizona and 15,525 in California in August. The migrant count was up 2 percent in Arizona last month compared to July while jumping 6 percent in the Golden State from July to August based on the new federal data.
A Capitol Inside analysis of the new CBP data found that migrant apprehensions plummeted 307 percent in Arizona in August when sized up against the count there in the same month in 2023. The number of migrants who federal agents encountered in Texas fell 264 percent last month compared to the August tally a year ago. Apprehensions were down 32 percent in California in August compared to the same month the previous year according to the federal agency.
The number of migrants who were taken into custody in Texas in the first 11 months of fiscal 2024 dropped 68 percent compared to the same span of time a year before. The Border Patrol logged almost 1.1 million apprehensions in the Lone Star State in the same amount of time in fiscal 2023 before the cumulative count fell below 645,000 for the past 11 months.
Texas had the most significant decrease from December to August with apprehensions down here 336 percent compared to 289 percent in Arizona and 136 percent in California. But sharp reductions in migrant rates in Arizona and California as well poke more holes in repeated Texas claims that President Joe Biden's administration has done nothing to curb illegal immigration into the U.S.
Governor Greg Abbott told Republicans at their national convention in July that he'd eliminated illegal border crossings. Abbott scaled the assertion back since that point - claiming several times that the state had slashed migrant rates in Texas by 85 percent without evidence or context. But the top Texas leader has vowed to dramatically increase the amount of dangerous concertina wire that his forces have strung on the banks of the Rio Grande in selective locations despite the plunging migrant numbers.
Abbott has emerged as Donald Trump's chief surrogate for border security - and that could explain why he's steadfastly refused to acknowledge a number of federal initiatives and restrictions that have culminated in a decrease in migrant crossings at a level no Republicans or Democrats imagined a few months ago. The governor kept it up on Monday at a press conference in Houston where he announced a crackdown on members of a Venezuelan street gang called Tren de Aragua - or TDA for short.
"The fact of the matter is this is something that has exploded in the aftermath of when the president said if you're from Venezuela you're going to be allowed into the United States," Abbott said at the Houston briefing where he was flanked by Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw and state border czar Mike Banks.
The number of Venezuelan migrants in the U.S. soared in the summer of 2023 before the Biden administration resumed deportations of those with criminal histories and others who failed to meet certain federal standards for temporary admission into the country. That was one of several federal actions that have contributed to the dramatic drop in border crossings this year.
But Texas had a double-digit percentage increase in migrant apprehensions in August when the counts were up by smaller amounts in Arizona and California.
