U.S. to reopen 4 border crossings as encounters drop

Jan. 3 (UPI) -- The Biden administration said Tuesday that it will reopen four entry points at the southern border, amid a drop in migrant apprehensions.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection identified the four entry points as Eagle Pass, Texas; San Diego, Calif.; and the Arizona locations of Lukeville and Nogales. They are to resume processing migrants starting Thursday.

"CBP will continue to prioritize our border security mission as necessary in response to this evolving situation," it said in a statement.

The points of entry were closed last month as CBP was surging available resources to process an influx of asylum seekers attempting to enter the country.

Though CBP has yet to publish its figures for December, unidentified sources with the federal agency told Fox News that there were more than 302,000 encounters at the southern border last month, the highest number recorded in a single month and the first time to exceed 300,000.

However, the announcement comes as border agents are seeing a drop in encounters.

A senior Biden administration official told reporters that CBP had seen fewer than 500 migrants in Eagle Pass' Del Rio sector on Monday.

The drop is being credited to increased enforcement from Mexico, a result that came as a result of Biden administration officials visiting Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador last week.

According to a joint communique on the meeting, the two countries reaffirmed their commitments to foster "orderly, humane and regular migration" and "enhanced efforts to disrupt human smuggling, trafficking and criminal networks," as well as continuing to promote legal migration pathways.

"We anticipate the encounter numbers at the border will continue to fluctuate," a senior Biden administration official said.

Mexico and the United States are expected to again meet on the topic of migration management later this month in Washington.