The US recorded a record number of immigration detentions in December, before Biden expanded Title 42 at the border

The number of undocumented migrants who were processed by the authorities at the border with Mexico reached a record number in December 2022, according to data revealed this Friday by the Border Patrol (CBP, for its acronym in English).

In total, agents processed migrants 251,487 times last month, an increase of 7% from November, according to CBP.

Of these, 14% involved people who had at least one previous encounter with the agents in the previous 12 months.

Previously, the monthly record for apprehensions had been set in May 2022, when CBP recorded more than 241,000 encounters with migrants along the southern border, according to the data.

A group of immigrants await processing after crossing the border on Friday, January 6, 2023 near Yuma, Arizona.

Gregory Bull/AP

The number of unique people encountered by border officials at the Mexico border in December was 216,162, an 11% increase from the previous month.

The Border Patrol believes that "the large number of expulsions during the pandemic has contributed to a greater number of migrants than usual making multiple attempts to cross the border," it explained in a statement.

[Biden expands Title 42 at the border to expel more migrants from Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua]

This announcement comes almost two weeks after President Joe Biden visited the border for the first time, after two years of complaints from Republicans, who have accused him of neglecting border security while the number of migrants crossing it shoots.

The number of migrants crossing the US-Mexico border has increased dramatically during Biden's first two years in office.

There were more than 2.38 million arrests during the last fiscal year, which ended on September 30, the first time the figure has exceeded 2 million.

The Administration has struggled to clamp down on the crossings, reluctant to take hardline measures that would resemble those of the Trump Administration.

They claim that "Biden is finishing Trump's wall" in the "most significant" place on the border

Jan 20, 202302:00

The policy changes announced at the beginning of January mean an expansion of the health regulation known as Title 42, which allows the United States to expeditiously expel migrants under the pretext of COVID-19.

These measures have been Biden's most drastic yet to contain border crossings and have resulted in the expulsion of thousands of potential asylum seekers.

Under the new measures, the United States said it will expel 30,000 migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti and Venezuela to Mexico every month.

Meanwhile, it will grant nationals of those countries another 30,000 permits to legally travel to the United States on humanitarian parole.

Applicants must legally travel by air, after securing a sponsor and passing background checks.

Those migrants who have first passed through other countries on their way to the United States and have not requested asylum there do not qualify for the new humanitarian parole program.