U.S. agents made more than 130,000 arrests along the southwestern border last month, according to Customs and Border Protection data obtained by national media.
Immigration officers reportedly made 30 percent more arrests in July than in June, despite the dangerous heat.
By recording this uptick in arrests, CBP has invited doubts regarding President Joe Biden’s border rule from May… during a bitter court battle over that very rule.
At the time, Biden allowed the expiration of Title 42, a critical pandemic-era rule allowing CBP agents to cite public health as grounds for refusing asylum seekers at the border.
The Biden administration implied illegal border crossings were down as a result.
“Unlawful border crossings have gone down since our border enforcement plan went into effect and remain well below the levels seen while Title 42 was in effect,” Waters said in a statement, pointing to a 42-percent drop in arrests from May to June. “We remain vigilant and expect to see fluctuations, knowing that smugglers continue to use disinformation to prey on vulnerable individuals.”’
But CBP has recorded a month-over-month spike. Data reported shows 40,000 of these arrests in Arizona alone. If accurate, that count would set a 15-year record for monthly arrests in the state.
Across the four border states, CBP recorded a spike nearly large enough to offset June’s data.
Under the Biden administration’s new rule, CBP can refuse asylum seekers at the border if they’ve failed to apply online first or if they’ve neglected to seek asylum in another country on the way to the border.
A federal judge on July 25 blocked this rule. But the judge delayed his ruling from taking effect immediately in order to give the Biden administration time to appeal.
U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar — one of Barack Obama’s far-Left appointees — was the one who slammed Biden’s rule, in the latest sign of Biden’s far-Left base becoming dissatisfied with his administration, critics claim.
“The Rule — which has been in effect for two months — cannot remain in place,” Tigar wrote in an order set to take effect later this month. “While they wait for an adjudication, applicants for asylum must remain in Mexico, where migrants are generally at heightened risk of violence by both state and non-state actors.”
The Justice Department immediately appealed the order, and they successfully asked for it to be put on hold while the case is heard.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.