WASHINGTON – U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released operational statistics today for May 2024. CBP monthly reporting can be viewed on CBP’s Stats and Summaries webpage.
“In close coordination with U.S. and foreign partners, CBP continues to take strong enforcement efforts against transnational criminal organizations at our borders and beyond, “said Troy A. Miller, Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Commissioner. “Our enforcement efforts are continuing to reduce southwest border encounters. But the fact remains that our immigration system is not resourced for what we are seeing. The dedicated men and women of CBP will continue to prioritize national security and disrupt criminal networks, while maximizing consequences for unlawful entry, including detention, prosecution, and removal under recently announced executive actions to further secure the border.”
Since the expiration of the CDC’s Title 42 public health Order on May 12, 2023, to May 31, 2024, DHS has removed or returned over 775,000 individuals, the vast majority of whom crossed the southwest border, including more than 115,000 individual family members. Total removals and returns over the past year exceed removals and returns in any fiscal year since 2010.
Below are key operational statistics for CBP’s primary mission areas in May 2024. View all CBP statistics online.
Ensuring Border Security and Managing Migration
CBP, in collaboration with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), continues to expeditiously process, remove, and strengthen consequences for individuals who cross our borders irregularly. Individuals and families without a legal basis to remain in the U.S. are subject to removal pursuant to Title 8 authorities and are subject to a minimum five-year bar on admission as well as potential prosecution if they subsequently re-enter without authorization. No one should believe the lies of smugglers. The fact is that people without a legal basis to remain in the United States will be removed.
The United States is working together with our domestic and foreign partners to jointly disrupt irregular migration across the region, offering safe, orderly, and lawful pathways for intending migrants and, with our international partners, taking actions against ruthless smugglers who continue to spread falsehoods and show disregard for the safety and well-being of vulnerable migrants.
In May 2024, the U.S. Border Patrol recorded over 117,900 encounters between ports of entry along the southwest border. In May, encounters between ports of entry along the southwest border were 9% lower than in April 2024. Single adult encounters in May decreased by 11% compared to April. On June 4, 2024, President Biden announced a Presidential Proclamation to temporarily suspend entry of noncitizens across the Southern border. The Secretary of Homeland Security and the Attorney General also jointly issued an interim final rule that, consistent with the proclamation, generally restricts asylum eligibility for those who irregularly enter across the Southern border – including the Southwest land and the Southern coastal border. Preliminary data of the two weeks since the interim final rule came into effect show a 25% decrease in daily encounters between ports of entry. However, migration flows are dynamic and CBP will continue surging personnel and resources to areas that need them.
In May 2024, encounters at ports of entry accounted for 31% of southwest border encounters. CBP’s Office of Field Operations recorded over 52,800 encounters at southwest border ports of entry in May 2024.
CBP continually analyzes and responds to changes in migration patterns, particularly migration outside of lawful pathways and unlawful border crossings. DHS continues to work with our federal and international partners to combat human smuggling and transnational criminal networks who profit from the most vulnerable for their own financial gain. The fact remains: the United States continues to enforce immigration law, and those without a legal basis to remain will be removed. Migrants attempting to enter without authorization are subject to removal under Title 8 authorities.
CBP’s message for anyone who is thinking of entering the United States unlawfully along the southern border is simple: don’t do it. When migrants cross the border unlawfully, they put their lives in peril. The terrain along the border is extreme, the summer heat is severe, and the miles of desert migrants must hike after crossing the border in many areas are often deadly. People who made the dangerous journey into this territory have died of dehydration, starvation, and heat stroke. Smuggling organizations abandon migrants in remote and dangerous areas. Transnational criminal organizations continue to recklessly endanger the lives of individuals they smuggle for their own financial gain with no regard for human life.
The U.S. Border Patrol has undertaken significant efforts in recent years to expand capacity to aid and rescue individuals in distress. To prevent the loss of life, CBP initiated a Missing Migrant Program in 2017 that locates noncitizens reported missing, rescues individuals in distress, and reunifies decedents’ remains with their families in the border region. In May, the U.S. Border Patrol conducted 503 rescues, bringing the FY 2024 total to 3,602 rescues. May rescues increased 22% compared with rescues in April.
View more migration statistics and rescues statistics.
CBP One™ App
The CBP One™ mobile application remains a key scheduling tool as part of DHS’s efforts to incentivize noncitizens to use lawful, safe, humane, and orderly pathways and processes. Noncitizens who cross between the ports of entry or who present themselves at a port of entry without making a CBP One™ appointment are subject to the interim final rule that, consistent with the Presidential Proclamation, restricts asylum eligibility for those who irregularly enter across the southern border – including the Southwest land and the southern coastal borders. DHS encourages migrants to utilize lawful processes, rather than taking the dangerous journey to cross unlawfully between the ports of entry, which also carries significant consequences under the United States immigration laws.
Use of the CBP One™ app to schedule appointments at ports of entry has increased CBP’s capacity to process migrants in a more efficient and orderly manner while cutting out unscrupulous smugglers who endanger and profit from vulnerable migrants. Last week’s suspension and limitation on entry and interim final rule does not apply to noncitizens who use the CBP OneTM mobile app to enter the United States at a port of entry in a safe and orderly manner to avail themselves to lawful processes.
In May, CBP processed over 44,500 individuals through appointments at ports of entry utilizing advanced information submitted through CBP One™. Since the appointment scheduling function in CBP One™ was introduced in January 2023 through the end of May 2024, more than 636,600 individuals have successfully scheduled appointments to present at ports of entry instead of risking their lives in the hands of smugglers. The top nationalities processed subsequent to arrival for their appointment are Venezuelan, Cuban, Haitian, Mexican, and Honduran.
A percentage of daily available appointments are allocated to the earliest registered CBP One™ profiles, so noncitizens who have been trying to obtain appointments for the longest time are prioritized. CBP is continually monitoring and evaluating the application to ensure its functionality and guard against bad actors.
CHNV Parole Processes
On January 5, 2023, DHS announced processes providing certain Cubans, Haitians, and Nicaraguans who have a supporter in the United States, undergo and clear robust security vetting and meet other eligibility criteria authorization to travel to the United States in a safe, orderly, and lawful way once they purchase their own commercial airline tickets. These processes were built on the success of the process for Venezuelans established in October 2022; they are publicly available online, and DHS has been providing regular updates on their use to the public. This is part of the Administration’s strategy to combine expanded lawful pathways with stronger consequences to reduce irregular migration. These processes have kept hundreds of thousands of people from migrating irregularly, often at the hands of smuggling networks.
Through the end of May 2024, about 462,100 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans arrived lawfully on commercial flights and were granted parole under these processes. Specifically, approximately 100,500 Cubans, 193,400 Haitians, 87,800 Nicaraguans, and 113,400 Venezuelans were vetted and authorized for travel; and approximately 98,200 Cubans, 177,100 Haitians, 80,700 Nicaraguans, and 106,100 Venezuelans arrived lawfully and were granted parole.
Safeguarding Communities by Interdicting Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs
As the largest law enforcement agency in the United States, CBP is uniquely positioned to detect, identify, and seize illicit drugs before they enter our communities. CBP’s combination of interdiction and intelligence capabilities, complemented by its border search authorities, scientific services, non-intrusive inspection equipment, and canine detection teams, places it at the forefront of the U.S. government’s efforts to combat illicit fentanyl and other dangerous drugs.
In April, CBP announced an expanded, multi-agency effort to target transnational criminals funneling fentanyl from Mexico into American communities. Operation Plaza Spike targets the cartels that facilitate the flow of deadly fentanyl, as well as its analogs, precursors, and tools to make the drugs. The operation is designed to disrupt operations in the “plazas,” cartel territories located directly south of the United States that are natural logistical chokepoints within the cartels’ operations. This is the next phase in CBP’s Strategy to Combat Fentanyl and Other Synthetic Drugs, a whole-of-government and international effort to anticipate, identify, mitigate, and disrupt illicit synthetic drug producers, suppliers, and traffickers.
That strategy also includes conducting operations, including Operation Apollo, that target the smuggling of illicit fentanyl and other dangerous drugs. First implemented in southern California in October 2023, and recently expanded into Arizona, Operation Apollo utilizes local field assets augmented by federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial partners to target drug traffickers’ supply chains in select locations based on ongoing investigations, intelligence collection, and drug seizure data. Operation Apollo targets items required in the production of illicit fentanyl, including precursor chemicals, pill presses and parts, movement of finished product, and illicit proceeds.
Nationwide in May, seizures of cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, fentanyl, and marijuana combined by weight increased by 29% compared to April. In May nationwide heroin seizures increased by 159%, methamphetamine seizures increased 102%, and fentanyl seizures increased by 70% compared to April. To date in FY 2024 through the end of May, CBP has seized over 13,700 pounds of fentanyl. CBP has caught more fentanyl nationwide between the start of fiscal year 2023 through May 31, 2024, than in the previous eight fiscal years combined, and we continue to optimize our intelligence and field operations to stop these deadly substances from reaching American communities.
Additional CBP drug seizure statistics can be found on the Drug Seizure Statistics webpage.
Facilitating Lawful Trade and Travel
As international travel continues to increase, CBP is leveraging technology to streamline efficiency and increase security at air and land ports of entry. Travelers are encouraged to utilize CBP’s mobile apps to enhance their travel experience, including the Global Entry Mobile Application and Mobile Passport Control, as well as new Global Entry Touchless Portals at nearly all international airports across the United States, which protect passenger privacy and expedite arrival processing by eliminating paper receipts.
Commercial trucks processed at ports of entry increased 0.5% from May 2023 to May 2024. Travelers arriving by air into the United States increased 10% in the same period; passenger vehicles processed at ports of entry increased 4%; and pedestrians arriving by land at ports of entry increased 5.7% over the same period.
CBP works diligently with the trade community and port operators to ensure that merchandise is cleared as efficiently as possible and to strengthen international supply chains and improve border security. In May 2024, CBP processed more than 2.9 million entry summaries valued at more than $284.8 billion, identifying estimated duties of nearly $6.7 billion to be collected by the U.S. government. In May, trade via the ocean environment accounted for 41.60% of the total import value, followed by air, truck, and rail.
View more travel statistics, and trade statistics.
Protecting Consumers, Eradicating Forced Labor from Supply Chains, and Promoting Economic Security
CBP continues to lead U.S. government efforts to eliminate goods from the supply chain made with forced labor from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. In May, CBP stopped 450 shipments valued at more than $100 million for further examination based on the suspected use of forced labor.
Intellectual property rights violations continue to put America’s innovation economy at risk. Counterfeit and pirated goods threaten the competitiveness of U.S. businesses, the livelihoods of American workers, and the health and safety of consumers.
Consumers are encouraged to be alert to the dangers of counterfeit goods especially when shopping online as they support criminal activity, hurt American businesses, and often have materials or ingredients that can pose serious health and safety risks. Every year CBP seizes millions of counterfeit products worth billions of dollars had they been genuine. In May, CBP seized 1,640 shipments that contained counterfeit goods valued at more than $331 million. More information about CBP’s intellectual property rights enforcement is available at www.cbp.gov/trade.
CBP completed 46 audits in May that identified $20 million in duties and fees owed to the U.S. government, stemming from goods that had been improperly declared in accordance with U.S. trade laws and customs regulations. CBP collected over $7 million of this identified revenue and from previous fiscal years’ assignments.
CBP is on the frontline of textiles and trade agreements enforcement, combating textile imports that are not compliant with U.S. trade laws. Protecting the domestic textile industry and American consumers is vital to U.S. national security, health care, and economic priorities. Toward this end, CBP is intensifying its targeting and enforcement efforts to increase and expedite the prosecution of illegal customs practices. CBP’s efforts include de minimis compliance, forced labor enforcement, cargo compliance, regulatory audits, and public awareness. In April, DHS announced an enhanced strategy to combat illicit trade and level the playing field for the American textile industry, which accounts for over 500,000 U.S. jobs and is critical for our national security. The plan details the actions CBP and Homeland Security Investigations will take to hold perpetrators accountable for customs violations and safeguard the American textile industry.
View more UFLPA enforcement statistics, and intellectual property rights enforcement statistics.
Defending our Nation’s Agricultural System
Through targeting, detection, and interception, CBP agriculture specialists work to prevent threats from entering the United States.
CBP issued 6,962 emergency action notifications for restricted and prohibited plant and animal products entering the United States in May 2024. CBP conducted 107,768 positive passenger inspections and issued 808 civil penalties and/or violations to the traveling public for failing to declare prohibited agriculture items.
View more agricultural enforcement statistics.