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  4. CBP Enforcement Statistics Fiscal Year 2021

CBP Enforcement Statistics Fiscal Year 2021

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the nation’s largest federal law enforcement agency charged with securing the nation’s borders and facilitating international travel and trade. Our top priority is to keep terrorists and their weapons from entering the United States.

At the nation’s more than 300 ports of entry, CBP officers have a complex mission with broad law enforcement authorities tied to screening all foreign visitors, returning American citizens and imported cargo that enters the U.S. Along the nation’s borders, the United States Border Patrol and Air and Marine Operations are the uniformed law enforcement arms of CBP responsible for securing U.S. borders between ports of entry.

The following is a summary of CBP enforcement actions related to inadmissibles, apprehensions, arrests of individuals with criminal convictions and individuals who have been apprehended multiple times crossing the border illegally.

Visit CBP's Southwest Border Migration page for demographic information regarding apprehensions and inadmissibles on the southwest border and the Assaults and Use of Force page for data on assaults on agents and officers, and uses of force by CBP personnel.
 

Total CBP Enforcement Actions

Numbers below reflect Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 - FY 2021.

Fiscal Year 2021 runs October 01, 2020 - September 30, 2021.

  FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 FY21
Office of Field Operations (OFO) Total Encounters1 216,370 281,881 288,523 241,786 294,352
U.S. Border Patrol Total Encounters2 310,531 404,142 859,501 405,036 1,662,167
Total Enforcement Actions 526,901 683,178 1,148,024 646,822 1,956,519

1 Beginning in March FY20,  OFO Encounters statistics include both Title 8  Inadmissibles and Title 42 Expulsions. To learn more, visit: Title-8-and-Title-42-Statistics. Inadmissibles refers to individuals encountered at ports of entry who are seeking lawful admission into the United States but are determined to be inadmissible, individuals presenting themselves to seek humanitarian protection under our laws, and individuals who withdraw an application for admission and return to their countries of origin within a short timeframe.

2 Beginning in March FY20,  USBP Encounters statistics include both Title 8  Apprehensions and Title 42 Expulsions. To learn more, visit: Title-8-and-Title-42-Statistics. Apprehensions refers to the physical control or temporary detainment of a person who is not lawfully in the U.S. which may or may not result in an arrest.
 

Search and Rescue Efforts

CBP agents frequently conduct life-saving efforts, while carrying out their respective missions. Numbers below reflect Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 - FY 2021.

Fiscal Year 2021 runs October 01, 2020 - September 30, 2021.

  FY19 FY20 FY21
U.S. Border Patrol - Southwest Border Only 4,920 5,071 12,833
Air and Marine Operations - Nationwide 377 184 423

Numbers below reflect FY 2017 - FY 2021.

Fiscal Year 2021 runs October 01, 2020 - September 30, 2021.

  FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 FY21
Office of Field Operations
Criminal Noncitizens Encountered3 10,596 11,623 12,705 7,009 6,567
NCIC4 Arrests 7,656 5,929 8,546 7,108 8,979
U.S. Border Patrol
Criminal Noncitizens Encountered3 8,531 6,698 4,269 2,438 10,763
Criminal Noncitizens with Outstanding Wants or Warrants 2,675 1,550 4,153 2,054 1,904

3 Criminal noncitizens refers to noncitizens who have been convicted of crime, whether in the United States or abroad, so long as the conviction is for conduct which is deemed criminal by the United States. Criminal noncitizens encountered at ports of entry are inadmissible, absent extenuating circumstances, and represent a subset of total OFO inadmissibles. U.S. Border Patrol arrests of criminal noncitizens are a subset of total apprehensions. See U.S. Border Patrol Criminal Noncitizen Statistics for a breakdown of criminal noncitizen stats by type of conviction.

4 NCIC (National Crime Information Center) arrests refers to the number of CBP arrests of individuals, including U.S. citizens, who are wanted by other law enforcement agencies.

In addition to longstanding federal court precedent recognizing the constitutional authority of the U.S. Government to conduct border searches, numerous federal statutes and regulations also authorize CBP to inspect and examine all individuals and merchandise entering or departing the United States, including all types of personal property, such as electronic devices.  See, for example, 8 U.S.C. §§ 1225, 1357 and 19 U.S.C. §§ 482, 507, 1461, 1496, 1499, 1581, 1582. CBP established strict guidelines for conducting border searches of electronic devices in its January 2018 Directive on Border Searches of Electronic Devices.

Border searches of electronic devices have helped detect evidence relating to terrorist activity and other national security matters, child pornography, drug smuggling, human smuggling, bulk cash smuggling, human trafficking, export control violations, intellectual property rights violations and visa fraud. In Fiscal Year 2020, CBP processed more than 238 million travelers at U.S. ports of entry. During that same period of time, CBP conducted 32,038 border searches of electronic devices, representing less than .014 percent of arriving international travelers.

International Travelers Processed with Electronic Device Search

Month FY 2018 FY 2019 FY 2020 YTD2021
October 2,539 3,026 3,959 2,969
November 2,446 2,962 3,805 2,909
December 2,509 3,365 3,966 2,760
January 3,090 3,765 4,450 3,014
February 2,512 3,096 3,702 2,829
March 2,921 3,526 2,514 3,445
April 2,701 3,218 451 3,139
May 2,764 3,138 616 3,323
June 2,606 3,480 1,149 3,150
July 2,798 3,458 2,047 3,244
August 3,320 4,085 2,614 3,425
September 3,090 3,794 2,765 3,243
Total 33,296 40,913 32,038 37,450

Office of Field Operations Nationwide Currency Seizures

Numbers below reflect FY 2015 - FY 2021.

Fiscal Year 2021 runs October 01, 2020 - September 30, 2021.

  FY15 FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 FY21
Amount (USD) $75,964,824 $62,101,328 $65,002,856 $63,691,464 $68,879,080 $93,302,645 $65,564,642


Nationwide Monthly Office of Field Operations Currency Seizures

Numbers below reflect FY 2018 - FY 2019 and FY 2021 to date (TD).

Fiscal Year 2021 runs October 01, 2020 - September 30, 2021.

  FY18 FY19 FY20 FY21
October $6,198,201 $4,190,389 $4,782,909 $5,700,700
November $4,303,600 $4,360,441 $5,426,672 $3,484,334
December $4,907,494 $4,415,486 $7,143,022 $4,345,481
January $5,194,829 $7,836,948 $4,209,230 $4,382,855
February $4,604,973 $5,574,578 $4,058,508 $5,153,423
March $4,894,285 $5,581,107 $5,615,991 $6,161,820
April $13,424,674 $13,733,814 $8,097,239 $12,238,333
May $4,024,325 $4,739,178 $3,920,587 $6,298,206
June $3,168,422 $4,607,755 $3,248,196 $5,048,449
July $4,503,412 $4,439,385 $6,195,526 $4,324,052
August $4,249,027 $5,442,547 $36,355,753 $3,010,791
September $4,218,223 $3,957,451 $7,372,288 $5,416,201
Total $63,691,464 $68,879,080 $96,425,920 $65,564,642


U.S. Border Patrol Nationwide Currency Seizures

Numbers below reflect FY 2015 - FY 2021.

Fiscal Year 2021 runs October 01, 2020 - September 30, 2021.

  FY15 FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 FY21
Amount (USD) $4,741,288 $7,924,537 $5,869,004 $7,176,142 $6,805,695 $8,933,512 $4,372,125


Monthly U.S. Border Patrol Nationwide Checkpoint Currency Seizures

Numbers below reflect FY 2018 - FY 2021.

Fiscal Year 2021 runs October 01, 2020 - September 30, 2021.

  FY18 FY19 FY20 FY21
October $35,829 $49,247 $33,558 $196,378
November $26,285 $51,269 $114,297 $17,528
December $2,822 $63,697 $156,961 $66,907
January $203,213 $59,857 $52,649 $192,116
February $117,933 $103,982 $84,475 $263,892
March $157,669 $110,924 $36,301 $135,123
April $17,913 $15,016 $49,559 $64,933
May $256,033 $129,766 $691,640 $29,188
June $31,494 $119,732 $511,781 $18,626
July  $14,339 $86,696 $159,504 $73,779
August $169,592 $141,475 $275,751 $331,791
September $80,358 $33,487 $124,274 $39,257
Total $1,113,480 $965,148 $2,290,750 $1,429,519

Drugs Dashboard thumbnail
 

OFO and USBP Drug Seizures Dashboard
Explore Office of Field Operations (OFO) and U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) drug seizures by weight and count of drug seizure events by Fiscal Year.

 

Monthly U.S. Border Patrol Nationwide Checkpoint Drug Seizures

Numbers below reflect FY 2021.

Fiscal Year 2021 runs October 01, 2020 - September 30, 2021.

  Marijuana Cocaine Heroin Methamphetamine Fentanyl Other
October 936 307 36 848 105 110
November 1,296 299 56 1,278 44 6
December 1,831 49 0 866 24 7
January 1,838 91 3 148 11 9
February 931 391 0 334 26 34
March 3,462 122 10 403 18 19
April 1,078 83 35 420 70 88
May 758 179 129 311 104 2
June 682 140 33 411 11 8
July 354 272 13 132 15 16
August 634 119 5 134 3 20
September 222 166 25 370 43 6

*weights are in pounds (lb)

See Air and Marine Operations Statistics for a breakdown of enforcement actions with non-CBP agencies.

U.S. Border Patrol Nationwide Apprehensions by Gang Affiliation

Numbers below reflect FY2015 - FY2021.

Fiscal Year 2021 runs October 01, 2020 - September 30, 2021.

Gang Affiliation FY15 FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 FY21
107th St 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
18th Street 84 47 61 145 168 36 28
Angelino Heights Sureno 13 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
Bandidos 0 4 0 0 0 0 0
Barrio Azteca 6 0 3 4 0 1 1
Barrio Van Nuys 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
Border Brothers 0 0 0 1 1 0 0
Brown Pride 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Chirizos 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
Folk Nation 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
Hard Times 13 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
Hells Angels 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
Hermanos Pistoleros Latinos (HPL) 2 18 3 2 2 2 1
Latin Kings 16 0 6 7 24 4 6
Locos Surenos Trece 0 1 0 1 0 0 0
Los Traviosos 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
Los Zetas 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
MS-13 335 253 228 413 464 72 113
Mara 18 0 0 0 1 2 1 1
Mara-R 0 0 1 1 0 0 0
Maravilla Salva Trucha 0 1 0 2 0 1 0
Market Street 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
Mexican Mafia 4 6 4 3 7 2 5
Mexicles 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Mexikanemi 2 0 3 0 0 0 0
Nortenos 14 5 6 5 6 1 5
Other 154 136 90 82 110 75 53
Outlaws 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Pacific Street Gang 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
Paisas 73 119 53 62 90 93 79
Partido Revolucionario Mexican (PRM) 0 0 0 0 1 0 1
Playboys 0 1 0 0 0 1 0
San Fernando Valley Gang 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
South Los Angeles 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
Southwest Cholos 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
Surenos (sur-13) 140 90 66 66 70 66 46
Tango Blast 14 16 8 8 20 7 7
Texas Syndicate 0 3 1 1 3 0 1
Tortilla Flats 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
Vallucos 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
Vilanos-13 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
West Park 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
Westside         1 0 0
Zetas 0 0 1 1 0 0 0
Total 844 702 536 808 976 363 348

Recidivism percentages are updated at the end of each fiscal year.

  FY 15 FY 16 FY 17 FY 18 FY 19 FY 20 FY 21
Recidivism5 14% 12% 10% 11% 7% 26% 27%

5 Recidivism refers to percentage of individuals apprehended more than one time by the Border Patrol within a fiscal year. Beginning in March FY20,  USBP encounters statistics and recidivism calculations include both Title 8 Apprehensions and Title 42 Expulsions. To learn more, visit: Title-8-and-Title-42-Statistics. Apprehensions refers to the physical control or temporary detainment of a person who is not lawfully in the U.S. which may or may not result in an arrest.

Last Modified: May 31, 2023