PHOENIX — In December, more than 302,000 migrant encounters were reported by US Customs and Border Protection. It's the highest number of encounters in at least 52 months. At the same time, there were 608 drug seizure events. It ranks as the lowest in 52 months.
The monthly datasets appear to show an inverse relationship between drug seizures and migrant encounters. Since 2019, migrant encounters have trended upward while drug seizures have gone the other way. If migrants were responsible for drug seizure events, the two would at the minimum show a weak correlation. When migrant encounters trended up, drug seizure events would also, in most cases.
The data also shows most drugs are seized where migrant encounters do not often occur.
From 2019 to 2023, there were consistently more drug seizure events at border ports of entries, not in between them at illegal crossing points. The gap between the two in 2023 is less pronounced than it was in 2020, but port-of-entry seizures still made up a little under 60%.
The same lack of relationship between migrant encounters and drug seizures exists on Arizona’s stretch of the border as well. December recorded over 91,000 migrant encounters, ranking 1 of 52 months. There were 45 port-of-entry drug seizures, a ranking of 50 out of 52 months, and 23 seizures at illegal crossing points, the second least in the data.
