As November’s presidential election edges closer, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has announced that migrant encounters at the southern border are on track to reach the lowest annual total since the end of the Trump administration, while total removals and returns over the past year have exceeded Trump-era levels.  

The agency said Monday in its monthly news release that it recorded about 58,000 migrant encounters between ports of entry along the southwest border in August, down from a December high of nearly 250,000.

That amounts to a 68% drop compared to the same month last year and keeps the Border Patrol on track to record the lowest number of annual apprehensions along the southwest border since fiscal year 2020. 

The figures also trend lower than the monthly average for fiscal year 2019, the last comparable full fiscal year prior to the pandemic. The term encounters refer to migrants taken into custody at the border, at least temporarily and then typically released while they wait for a decision on asylum, as well as those expelled immediately without being taken into custody.

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The numbers reveal a dramatic turn in encounters since a record high in December 2023, when CBP encountered nearly 250,000 migrants crossing the southern border, shattering the previous high of around 224,000 encounters in May 2022.

Immigration continues to be a hot button issue heading into this year’s election, and President Biden was forced into signing an executive order, the Presidential Proclamation and complementary Interim Final Rule (IFR), in June in the wake of increased pressure from Republicans and former President Donald Trump to act on the unprecedented number of border crossings under his administration.

Border Patrol said that since President Biden’s executive order went into effect on June 5, and through Sept. 10, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has removed or returned more than 131,000 individuals to more than 140 countries, including operating more than 400 international repatriation flights. 

In the same period, DHS has almost tripled the percentage of noncitizens processed for expedited removal and the percentage of releases pending immigration court proceedings is down nearly half, CPB says. 

Total removals and returns over the past year exceed removals and returns in any fiscal year since 2010, CPB says. 

The agency said in its report that the IFR has helped DHS’ capacity for enforcement against migrants who pose a threat to national security or public safety, such as gang members attempting to enter the country unlawfully, because the IFR “renders those individuals ineligible for asylum and enables their quick removal.”

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“The United States is working together with our domestic and foreign partners to jointly disrupt irregular migration across our borders and monitor emerging threats, including national security or public safety concerns posed by transnational criminal organizations,” CBP said in its report. “We continue to conduct thorough screening and vetting for any individual that we encounter at our borders to identify individuals posing threats to public safety and national security.”

CPB added that DHS has also deployed more Border Patrol agents to the front line to help with border security operations, enhancing the federal government’s efforts to interdict individuals who pose a threat to national security or public safety. 

The DHS has also implemented enhanced screening measures at the border to identify known or suspected gang members, including members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which has been plaguing communities by taking over buildings in Texas and Colorado. 

In August, CBP’s counternarcotics surge efforts also led to the seizure of 30% more dangerous drugs than in July, Troy Miller, the senior official performing the duties of the commissioner, said in a statement.

“Through the work of our dedicated personnel, this enhanced enforcement posture is meaningfully disrupting the operations of deadly transnational criminal organizations,” Miller said. 

Additionally, CBP said in its Monday report that nearly 530,000 migrants flew into the U.S. and were paroled into the country as part of the Biden administration’s controversial mass parole program for those migrating from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela (CHNV). The program launched in October 2012.

The data shows that nearly 530,000 migrants flew into the U.S. and were paroled. It also shows that about 813,000 migrants have scheduled appointments that were made on the CBP One app at ports of entry, to be released into the U.S.

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Both are considered “lawful pathways” into the U.S. and were created by the Biden administration.

However, the numbers do not count in data from the Border Patrol because they are not considered illegal crossings.

Migrants taking part in the CHNV program are paroled into the U.S. on two-year humanitarian parole grants, which allow them to apply for work.

Fox News’ Bill Melugin and Greg Wehner contributed to this report.