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The number of migrants apprehended by federal authorities after illegally crossing the border into Texas decreased roughly 32% in June — a sharp drop seen across the entire U.S.-Mexico border, according to federal statistics released this week.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials in Texas apprehended 30,771 migrants between ports of entry in June, down from 45,139 in May. Border Patrol agents apprehended 83,536 migrants in June across the southern border, down from 117,901 in May. That marked the fewest monthly apprehensions since January 2021, the month President Joe Biden took office, according to CBP figures released Monday.

The new statistics are among the first released since Biden’s executive order that widely stopped granting asylum to migrants went into effect June 5.

“Recent border security measures have made a meaningful impact on our ability to impose consequences for those crossing unlawfully,” acting CBP Commissioner Troy A. Miller said in a statement. “We are continuing to work with international partners to go after transnational criminal organizations that traffic in chaos and prioritize profit over human lives.”

The number of migrants entering the country illegally was already decreasing when Biden issued his order, which excludes unaccompanied minors as well as asylum-seekers who secure an appointment with U.S. officials through a phone application.

Apprehensions so far this year in Texas peaked in March at 54,172 and have dropped each month since. Across the southern border, apprehensions this year peaked in February at 140,638, according to the latest data — a large drop from the record-high 249,785 apprehensions recorded by Border Patrol in December.

The decrease suggests migrants have adopted a “wait and see” approach in response to Biden’s order, which accelerated a slowdown that began in January, said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director at the American Immigration Council, a Washington, D.C., a group that advocates for immigrants.

It also highlights the efforts of the Mexican government to help the U.S. clamp down on immigration, Reichlin-Melnick said. He noted the number of unaccompanied minors, who are not included in Biden’s asylum restrictions, continued decreasing in June.

“It’s a sign that a lot of this is down to Mexico’s actions in preventing migrants from getting to the border in the first place,” he said.

In Texas, the number of migrants entering the country illegally has been decreasing for most of CBP’s fiscal year that began in October. The state shares roughly 1,250 miles of border with Mexico.

During the 2023 fiscal year, Texas on average accounted for roughly 59% of migrant encounters along the southwest border. During the first half of the 2024 fiscal year, Texas had on average accounted for 43% of migrant encounters.

Gov. Greg Abbott has credited the state’s multibillion-dollar border mission, Operation Lone Star, for the recent decline. The initiative began in March 2021. But immigration and foreign policy analysts say many variables — from poverty to violence to smuggling routes chosen by drug cartels that now control much of the human smuggling business on the border — affect migration patterns and can change quickly.

“The most important thing to understand is the unpredictability of all of this,” Reichlin-Melnick said. “A lot of the times, things that seem to work on paper or that do work for a few months begin breaking down due to resource constraints, diplomatic limitations or simply the fact that we live in a changing world.”

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This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2024/07/16/texas-border-migrant-apprehensions-decrease/.

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