Border Patrol reports 2.4 million migrant arrests at southwest border this year, the most ever

Migrants from Venezuela walk between the southern border wall and the Rio Grande toward a temporary U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing facility in El Paso on Oct. 6. (Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune)

There were nearly 2.4 million migrant arrests at the nation’s southwestern border this fiscal year — the highest number ever recorded, according to U.S. Border Patrol data released this week.

Officials arrested 227,000 migrants in September, a 11% increase compared with August, the third-highest number recorded this year along the U.S.-Mexico border after May and April.