Migrant encounters hit daily record at southern border, as Washington struggles to agree on solutions

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Retired Border Patrol chief: ‘When is this going to end?’

Retired Yuma sector Border Patrol Chief Chris Clem describes mostly single adult males crossing the border near Lukeville, Ariz.

Migrant encounters at the southern border hit the highest total for a single day ever recorded on Tuesday, marking yet another record broken as part of the ongoing migrant crisis which has hammered cities at both the border and across the country.

Multiple Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sources told Fox News that there were over 12,000 migrant encounters on Tuesday. Over 10,200 of those were Border Patrol encounters of illegal immigrants coming between ports of entry.

That Border Patrol number is among the highest number of encounters ever recorded for the agency by itself but breaks a record when combined with the encounters by CBP’s Office of Field Operations at ports of entry.

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As of Wednesday morning, the agency has over 22,000 migrants in custody, with several major Border Patrol sectors running heavily over capacity, sources said.

Dec. 5, 2023: Migrants are seen camped out near Lukeville, Arizona. (Fox News)

Fiscal Year 23 hit a new record of 2.4 million migrant encounters, with September hitting the highest monthly total ever recorded, with over 260,000 encounters. October saw slightly fewer with over 240,000 encounters, but that was still a record for October.

In recent weeks, the Tucson Sector in Arizona has been hard hit by a surge in migrant encounters with remote parts of the sector seeing massive amounts of migrants -- including hundreds of adult male migrants from Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

The Tucson Sector saw nearly 3,000 encounters in a single day and has seen 17,500 encounters in a single week, the highest weekly total ever recorded. 

Meanwhile, in the Del Rio Sector, which includes the traffic hotspot of Eagle Pass, there were over 3,300 illegal crossings in that sector alone.

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Fox is currently on the ground in Lukeville, Arizona, where adult migrants were camped out waiting to be processed by overwhelmed Border Patrol agents. Many of them told Fox they are here for opportunity and want to go to cities like New York City -- which has itself said it is overwhelmed by the numbers it is seeing.

Dec. 4, 2023: Migrants are seen camped out near Lukeville, Arizona. (Fox News)

Those cities have increased pressure for more funding from the Biden administration in recent weeks, with mayors demanding $5 billion in aid. That is significantly higher than the additional $1.5 billion the White House has requested as part of its supplemental funding request to Congress.

That request is also being held up as Democrats and Republicans struggle to agree on what border provisions need to be in any funding package. Republicans, who blame the Biden administration’s policies for the crisis, want restrictions on asylum and parole. Democrats have said they would only agree to policy changes if they were accompanied by an amnesty for illegal immigrants already in the U.S.

The Biden administration has long said that it needs more funding -- it has requested $14 billion for border operations overall in the supplemental -- while calling on Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

STUNNING IMAGES SHOW ARIZONA BORDER OVERRUN BY MASSIVE SURGE OF ADULT MALE MIGRANTS FROM ACROSS THE GLOBE

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Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on CNN on Wednesday that the administration was open to some proposals from Republicans, but not others.

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"We've presented proposals that address the situation, that provide real practical solutions and also do not do violence to our fundamental values. We are a country of refugees. We do have asylum laws. We do have refugee laws. We we abide by our international obligations that are longstanding," he said. "And so that is my response to that. Some of the proposals are reasonable and worthy of discussion. Others are, frankly, not."

President Biden, meanwhile, told reporters on Wednesday afternoon that he is open to "significant compromises" on the border.

"We need to fix the broken border system. It is broken," he said.