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Is a Wisconsin congressman correct that 10,000 unaccompanied minors cross the US border each month?

By Tom Kertscher
YES

Republican U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman, who represents part of eastern Wisconsin north of Madison and Milwaukee, made the claim Feb. 27, 2023 on the House floor.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports border “encounters” with its agents. Its latest figures, posted Feb. 2, 2023, show 47,092 unaccompanied minor encounters in the previous four months. That’s an average of 11,773 per month.

Unaccompanied minor encounters in fiscal year 2022 — Oct. 1, 2021 through Sept. 30, 2022 — totaled 152,880. That’s an average of 12,740 per month.

The figures include minors crossing the border illegally between legal points of entry, such as walking across the U.S.-Mexico border, and those trying to cross at legal points of entry.

Federal policy is to transfer unaccompanied minors into facilities run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement within 72 hours.

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Wisconsin Watch, the news arm of the nonpartisan, nonprofit Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, increases the quality and quantity of investigative reporting in Wisconsin, while training current and future investigative journalists. Its work fosters an informed citizenry and strengthens democracy.
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