Arrests following illegal crossings of the US-Mexican border are the lowest of President Joseph Biden’s administration—down 29 percent in June alone—following a Presidential proclamation effectively barring would-be asylum seekers from requesting protection after they have illegally crossed the southern border.

The Department of Homeland Security stated that “the Border Patrol’s 7-day average has decreased to below 1,900 encounters per day.” Similarly, the “number of encounters at the Southwest Border is down 50 percent in the six weeks since the Proclamation has been implemented.” 

President Biden released his proclamation restricting the Southern border entry of noncitizens on June 4. The proclamation carves out a number of exceptions for noncitizens who have visas, permission to seek entry into the US, or are victims of severe human trafficking, but it is designed to bar irregular asylum seeker entry over the border.

President Biden’s proclamation directed the Secretary of Homeland Security to monitor the number of “daily encounters,” which include apprehensions of undocumented migrants within 100 miles of the border or entry refusals at US-Mexico land border crossings. The restrictions are to be discontinued 14 calendar days after the Secretary has determined that the has been a 7-consecutive-day average of less than 1,500 encounters, with certain exclusions. If the secretary determines there have been 2,500 encounters or more after 7 consecutive days, then the restrictions will be reinstated.

The proclamation followed the May 2023 Circumvention of Lawful Pathways, or the Lawful Pathway rule, which encouraged the use of lawful pathways to seek asylum and imposed “a rebuttable presumption of asylum ineligibility on those who do not use them.”