Here are the numbers for February, released on the third Friday of a four-Friday month:

Expect it to get worse. Andrew Arthur of CIS.org has analysis:

January Border Numbers Reflect Ongoing Chaos: Brace yourself for what the rest of FY 2022 will bringhttps://t.co/yDBRPcJpYc

— Center for Immigration Studies (@CIS_org) February 22, 2022

Arthur writes:

CBP last week released its statistics on the number of illegal migrants encountered at the Southwest border in January. In what is quickly becoming an evergreen observation, the numbers are bad, reflecting a border in chaos with no end in sight.

Apprehensions Fell Between December and January, but Are Still Bad. In January, Border Patrol agents at the Southwest border apprehended nearly 147,000 illegal migrants. On the bright side, the number of apprehensions was more than 14 percent lower than in December, but that is more because the December numbers were so dreadful than because the January numbers were good.

Illegal migration almost always craters in January before picking up again in February, as foreign nationals and smugglers spend the holidays with their families. Traditionally, apprehensions tick up through May, at which point they hit their yearly highs, and then fall through the height of the summer as the weather heats up.

The spring is not exclusively “travel season” for illegal migrants, but it is usually the height.

FY 2021 did not fit into this traditional pattern, and while illegal apprehensions crested last fiscal year in August, they have remained high ever since. Every month between last May and December set new monthly apprehension totals at the Southwest border.

Last Month’s Apprehensions Up More than 400 Percent Over Pre-Pandemic January Totals. The January 2022 apprehension numbers nearly doubled the totals for the same month one year before (75,316), which in turn was 158 percent higher than the number of Border Patrol apprehensions at the Southwest border in January 2020 (29,205) — prior to the Covid-19 pandemic shutdowns that brought most immigration (legal and illegal) to a halt.

Comparing the apprehension numbers for last month to the pre-pandemic numbers in January 2020, illegal migration is up more than 400 percent on a monthly basis in just two years. That surge occurred even though illegal migrants currently run the risk of being expelled under CDC orders issued under Title 42 of the U.S. Code in response to the pandemic.

Obviously those orders issued under Title 42 were issued by Trump. Biden may lift them at any time, probably BEFORE he lifts any Federal COVID mandates on Americans.

The Biden Administration is preparing not to prevent illegal immigration, but to welcome it, as we noted recently. See Biden Admin Building Border "Processing" (I. E., Welcome) Centers On Border Instead Of Sending Illegals Back.

U.S. preps for another record-breaking rise in migrant arrests at Mexico border https://t.co/epQ0PkbhNh And by "prep" they mean hire more greeters.

— Mark Krikorian (@MarkSKrikorian) January 29, 2022

And if you're wondering why the migrants are coming, it's because Joe Biden invited them:

A flashback of Biden literally inviting mass illegal immigration, for those who persist in claiming that he did not create the border crisis. https://t.co/FpaczrzgrP

— Mark Krikorian (@MarkSKrikorian) February 20, 2022