NEW YORK CITY - A record number of immigrants crossed the southern border of Mexico and into the United States last year. This past December, the U.S. Border Patrol had nearly 250,000 encounters with migrants crossing, the highest monthly total on record, easily surpassing the previous peak of about 224,000 encounters in May 2022.
Meanwhile, in 2024 this far, close to 70,000 people have crossed the treacherous Darien Gap to make their way to the States, an inter-annual increase of almost 50% for the time period.
