CBP Logs Busiest November on Record With Encounters at US Southern Border

Nearly 80 percent of the 242,418 encounters at the border this November were with illegal immigrants outside ports of entry.

Asylum seeking migrants stand at a makeshift camp along the U.S.-Mexico border as they await processing by the U.S. Border Patrol in Jacumba Hot Springs, Calif., on Dec. 1, 2023. Mario Tama/Getty Images

The United States experienced its busiest November on record with encounters at the southern border, according to new data released on Friday.

Providing a monthly update of its border enforcement statistics, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported its personnel had logged some 242,418 encounters at the southern border in November. By comparison, CBP recorded 235,173 encounters at the southern border in November 2022, 74,845 in November 2021, and 72,113 in November 2020.