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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Gov. Spencer Cox held a video meeting with U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday, getting assurances from Mayorkas that he'd be more forthcoming about data on border crossings.
The number of apprehensions of undocumented immigrants by U.S. border officials has spiked along the U.S.-Mexico border since last summer, prompting concern and outrage among lawmakers, including Cox and other Utah leaders. They worry that more illegal crossers are making their way into the country.
In that context, Cox brought up the border situation during a meeting late last month with President Joe Biden at the White House while in Washington for the winter sessions of the National Governors Association. Tuesday's 10-minute call between Cox and Mayorkas was a follow-up to that.
"During his time with fellow governors at the White House, Gov. Cox had expressed frustration to the president over the lack of information being shared by the Department of Homeland Security with the states regarding asylum seekers traveling to each state," Cox's office said in a statement after the meeting with Mayorkas. "Secretary Mayorkas called to inform him that the administration has agreed to improve information sharing with governors, including better details about asylum seekers."
Cox's office didn't provide additional details, but data demonstrating the impact of the border situation on individual states can be hard to come by, which, perhaps, underlies the governor's push for state-specific information.
Cox traveled to Eagle Pass, Texas, on Feb. 4 with 14 other GOP governors to call attention to the border issue. On Feb. 9, he announced he'd send state troopers and Utah National Guard members to Texas to aid that state in its controversial efforts to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border. Those patrol efforts are currently facing a court challenge.
Three other members of Utah's federal delegation have made recent border trips: U.S. Rep. John Curtis on Feb. 8 and U.S. Reps. Celeste Maloy and Burgess Owens on Jan. 3.
Encounters down, drug seizures up
While Utah-specific figures may not be readily available, the latest U.S. Customs and Border Protection data shows a sharp dip in January, relative to December, in encounters between border agents and immigrants along the U.S.-Mexico border. A Customs and Border Protection statement from Feb. 13, when the latest figures were released, attributed the decline to seasonal trends and "enhanced" enforcement.
According to the figures, officials who patrol the border registered 176,205 encounters in January, down from 301,983 last December — the highest total by far since March 2020 when current tracking practices were implemented. The figures represent the number of immigrants apprehended, deemed inadmissible or processed for expulsion and include those seeking "humanitarian protection" in the United States, which can include asylum seekers.
The sharp January dip notwithstanding, the encounter figure for the month still exceeds the total for January 2023, 157,358; January 2022, 154,874; and January 2021, 78,414. Accordingly, the Feb. 13 statement didn't characterize January's decline as an indication that the border situation is necessarily easing.
"We continue to experience serious challenges along our border which surpass the capacity of the immigration system," said Troy A. Miller, who heads U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Border encounters for the first four months of fiscal year 2024 — October, November and December last year and January this year — totaled 961,537, up from 876,375 in the first four months of fiscal year 2023. Encounters totaled 2.48 million in fiscal year 2023, 2.38 million in fiscal year 2022 and 1.73 million in fiscal year 2021, according to Customs and Border Protection data.
"The majority of all individuals encountered at the Southwest border over the past three years have been removed, returned or expelled," reads the Feb. 13 statement. Asylum seekers in certain circumstances may stay in the United States while their requests are processed, according to the American Immigration Council.
The threat of more fentanyl and other drugs getting into the United States from Mexico has underscored some leaders' concerns about the surge in border activity.
The Customs and Border Protection statement said agents interdicted 34% more fentanyl in January compared to December and 68% more cocaine in the period. The agency's website, meantime, features a regular stream of press releases reporting large drug busts, typically at official crossings, not by clandestine crossers outside U.S. ports of entry.
U.S. border officials confiscated $11 million in fentanyl pills at the San Ysidro Port of Entry near San Diego, California, according to a March 1 press release. Officers at the Eagle Pass, Texas, Port of Entry confiscated $847,000 worth of methamphetamine in three separate actions on Feb. 27. Officers seized $117 million worth of methamphetamine, 6.5 tons, also at the Eagle Pass entry point, on Feb. 18, among many other busts.
