How many people were apprehended trying to cross the border illegally in December? We don't know yet because CBP hasn't yet released its monthly update.
Why? Literally on January 1st there were news reports saying that border apprehensions reached a record 300,000 in December. This was based on "internal government data," which isn't really a surprise since CBP keeps daily counts for its own use. They could routinely release the monthly numbers on the first of the month if they felt like it.
But not only do they not do this, it's actually taking them longer and longer to publish each month's figures. Because I'm a huge dork, I herewith present a chart showing the day of the month that border numbers are released:
As you can see, CBP used to release updates around the tenth of each month. Then, in mid-2021, the releases got later and later until they were coming out a full week later on average.
I say "on average" because CBP has no published schedule for these releases. They basically appear randomly between the 14th and 24th of the month.
Now, you might wonder why I care. It's not as if anything important hinges on this, after all. And that's totally fair. It's just that as a numbers nerd it offends me that CBP is so sloppy with this stuff. What's the explanation?
POSTSCRIPT: Do you wish this chart went further back? Of course you do! The reason it doesn't is that CBP, for reasons known only to God and its comms shop, provides access to press releases only from the current administration. So February 2021 is the earliest they have. (I tracked down a few miscellaneous ones from 2020, but that was all I could find.)
They do have an archive from previous administrations. But it doesn't work. That is, it literally does nothing. No matter what you do, it presents you with the last few press releases of the Trump administration and that's it. Your tax dollars at work.
Have you tried entering the URLs into archive.org's Wayback Machine?
Probably because the administration values accuracy and the previous one (and their supporters) did not.
"What's the explanation?"
Well the obvious conjecture is the numbers continue to get worse and Biden is slow walking them to avoid getting more bad press. And it is bad because Dem mayors snd governors across the country are screaming fir help.