Border, Migration & City Strain
The Border & Immigration
Record encounters had a cause. Enforcement works when you use it; signals matter, and the surge proved it.
The Stakes
Most people aren't anti-immigrant — they're pro-order. They want a line that means something, a process that's fair to the person who waited their turn, and a border that a parent can trust. When encounters hit record highs, it wasn't an act of nature. It was the predictable response to signals: when the rules said come, people came; when the rules said stop, the numbers fell. That's not a talking point. It's what the federal data shows, month after month.
The Receipts
Every figure cites a primary federal source. Tap a chip to check it yourself.
~250k in one monthU.S. Border Patrol recorded roughly 249,700 encounters between ports of entry in December 2023 — the single highest monthly total on record, with total CBP southwest encounters that month above 300,000.
CBP ↗~2.5M / yearSouthwest border encounters reached their highest recorded annual level in FY2023 — roughly 2.5 million — before falling to about 2.1 million in FY2024 as enforcement signals tightened.
CBP ↗−55%After the June 4, 2024 border proclamation restricting asylum at the line, encounters between ports of entry dropped by about 55% — proof that the signal, not the season, drove the numbers.
DHS ↗936,500Through December 2024, roughly 936,500 people were admitted via CBP One appointments — a parallel, scheduled inflow on top of border encounters, showing how policy choices shaped the volume.
CBP ↗May 11, 2023Title 42 ended on May 11, 2023; the rules that followed sent mixed signals, and encounters climbed to their December peak before later restrictions reversed the trend.
DHS ↗Their Best Argument — and Why It Fails
The steelman
Migration is driven by violence, poverty, and climate in sending countries — push factors no border policy can switch off. People fleeing for their lives will come regardless of U.S. rules, so enforcement is both cruel and futile.
The rebuttal
Push factors are real, and the right to seek protection is a hard floor — no one is arguing to turn away a genuine refugee at the line. But the data is unambiguous that pull factors matter too: encounters spiked when entry got easier and fell more than half within weeks of the June 2024 rule, with no corresponding change in conditions abroad. If push factors alone controlled the flow, the numbers wouldn't track U.S. policy changes so tightly. Enforcement isn't futile; it's the variable we actually control. And an orderly system is what lets us say yes to real refugees instead of drowning that promise in chaos.
The Conservative Fix
- 1
Keep a single, consistent enforcement standard at the line so the signal stops whipsawing migrants and smugglers alike.
Federal - 2
Fund detention and removal capacity to match encounter volume, so a 'no' actually means no.
Federal - 3
Mandate detain-or-remove for non-meritorious claims and end mass parole-and-release.
Federal - 4
Expand legal, orderly pathways and work visas so people who qualify don't have to cross illegally to be heard.
Federal - 5
Surge immigration judges and asylum officers to decide cases in months, not years.
Federal
Answer the Muster
Who decides this: Your U.S. House member and Senators (border enforcement and immigration law are federal)
I'm a constituent in [district]. The border numbers proved that enforcement signals work — encounters fell more than half within weeks of the June 2024 rule. I'm asking [Official] to support consistent enforcement, real detention-or-removal capacity, and faster asylum decisions. Where does [Official] stand?