SAN ANTONIO — Just 4,207 migrants arrived in San Antonio last month while trying to get to their next destinations, amounting to the lowest tally since March 2021 and the fourth-lowest overall since a north-side resource center was established in January of that year.
On just six occasions since then has the monthly total of migrants passing through the Alamo City come in at fewer than 5,000, according to data provided through the city's migrant dashboard. The last time it happened before June: July 2021.
The low figure reflects a substantial drop in migrants passing through San Antonio this year so far compared to 2023, which on seven months saw more than 20,000 arrivals. By comparison, 2024 has seen 35,425 so far as of Wednesday, a figure that averages out to fewer than 6,000 for each of the first six months of the year.
More than 621,000 migrants have come to San Antonio since the start of 2021, the majority coming from Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba.
The trend isn't unique to San Antonio. After reporting nearly 302,000 encounters along the southern border in December, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) went on to report fewer than 190,000 every month since. The numbers decreased in the spring, according to CBP data, in a time of year when they typically rise.
And, according to CBS News, illegal crossings at the southern border plummeted by 54% in May compared to record highs reported in December. Senior U.S. officials partially attributed the spring's lower-than-expected levels of unlawful crossings to an aggressive crackdown on U.S.-bound migrants by the Mexican government; that includes forcing migrants from freight trains sometimes used to cross Mexico en route to the border and flying some back to their home countries.
The lower number of migrants in San Antonio could mean a lighter burden on Catholic Charities, which runs the Migrant Resource Center along San Pedro that right now can accommodate up to 1,200. At the same time, Catholic Charities has faced uncertainty this year amid lower federal funding that forced the organization to lay off employees and halt the purchase of travel tickets for migrants making their way to final destinations.
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