It was a terrible bill. 5k encounters per day before measures were raised. We’re averaging
278 per day in 2026. We didn’t need trash legislation to get there.
In the 2024 bipartisan Senate border bill backed by the Biden administration, the key number was 5,000 encounters per day, averaged over seven consecutive days.
More precisely:
- At a 7-day average of 4,000 encounters/day, the DHS secretary could activate the new “border emergency authority.”
- At a 7-day average of 5,000 encounters/day, DHS would be required to activate it.
- If encounters reached 8,500 on any single day, activation would also be mandatory. Those thresholds appear directly in the bill text.
- Once activated, the emergency authority would allow DHS to rapidly remove or turn away many migrants crossing between ports of entry and substantially restrict access to asylum.