Funviralpark Federal border officials reported a record number of migrant transits at the southern border in a release of statistics Friday night just before Christmas.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection encountered 233,740 migrants over about 2,000 miles south in November. This is the highest ever recorded for the same month and he is up more than 30% from 178,845 in the same period last year.
At least 16% of immigrants encountered had previously attempted to cross the border into the United States.
The data dump from Homeland Security was first reported by FOX News, and its timing has led to speculation that the Biden administration is trying to keep the new numbers secret.
The news was tweeted by Fox’s Bill Melgin in a post retweeted by Twitter’s owner and CEO. Elon Musk late Friday who responded with two exclamation points.
“In a blatant news dump Friday evening leading up to Christmas weekend, the federal government announced border numbers for November,” Melugin tweeted.
Many of the new arrivals came from communist countries such as Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, Customs and Border Protection statistics show.
The Biden administration is under pressure to resolve waves of immigration across the southern border that have overwhelmed frontier cities such as El Paso, Texas, where hundreds of people are sleeping on the streets. Last week, Mayor Oliver Reeser declared a state of emergency to deal with the influx.
Earlier this week, President Biden asked the Supreme Court to delay the end of a Trump-era policy that allowed Border Patrol agents to bring immigrants back to Mexico.
Title 42 was originally scheduled to end on December 21st, but has been extended until after Christmas.
