(NewsNation) — More than 10,000 migrants crossed the southern border into the United States Wednesday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection sources tell NewsNation.
Numbers like that haven’t been seen since before the end of the pandemic-era policy Title 42, which allowed officials to turn migrants away on public health grounds. Before Title 42’s expiration May 11, illegal crossings started to surge, although shortly after the policy was lifted, they dropped dramatically.
Since then, though, crossings have gone back up. For the past few days, they’ve steadily risen.
On Monday, the number of people who crossed was 9,700. That rose Tuesday to 9,344 people and then 10,228 on Wednesday. In comparison, officials encountered 7,400 migrants per day on average in August.
Agents with decades of experience told NewsNation’s Ali Bradley they have never seen the border “this bad.”
Migrant groups of about 50 to 100 people were crossing the border in Eagle Pass, Texas, on Thursday morning. With the soft-sided facility maxed out, hundreds of people waited under a bridge to be transported for processing. A majority of them were from Venezuela and Cuba.
Eagle Pass Mayor Rolando Salinas signed an emergency declaration Tuesday over the situation.
Along with the thousands streaming across the border in Eagle Pass, officials also recorded high encounter numbers last week in the Tucson, Arizona, sector and thousands of street releases in Arizona and California. More than 3,000 migrants were dropped off at four different transit centers in San Diego County over six days.
This week, the Biden administration said it is sending 800 active-duty troops to the southern border, who will assist Texas National Guard personnel already there. Other actions announced by the Department of Homeland Security include accelerating the work authorization process, expediting the deportation of families without a lawful basis to remain and expanding capacity at DHS facilities.