(Chart: U.S. Customs and Border Patrol)

(CNSNews.com) - Since April, the number of illegal aliens trying to get into the United States along the Southwest border has been steadily rising, reaching a total of 30,567 in August, a 22.5 percent increase from July and almost twice the 15,771 recorded in April, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said.



Of those 30,567 detained in August, 22,293 individuals were apprehended between ports of entry. That's up from 18,190 in July; 16,087 in June; 14,520 in May; and 11,125 in April.



Another 8,283 individuals were deemed inadmissible at ports of entry in August, including illegal aliens who turned themselves in to Border Patrol agents. By comparison, the number of inadmissibles was 6,835 in July; 5,570 in June; 5,425 in May; and 4,646 in April.



With one month to go in Fiscal Year 2017 (Oct. 1, 2016-Sept. 30 2017), a total of 281,390 individuals have been apprehended between ports of entry on the Southwest Border, and 102,692 have been deemed inadmissible at ports of entry, for a grand total of 384,082 individuals either detained or turned away.

That's still well below the 559,695 apprehensions/inadmissibles identified on the Southwest border in Fiscal 2016; the 445,819 recorded in FY 2015; and the 569,972 in FY 2014.



As the CBP chart shows, the total number of illegal aliens either detained or deemed inadmissible reached 66,712 in the month of October 2016, the first month of Fiscal 2017. The number further declined in November, the month Donald Trump was elected president, and it continued dropping through April, before rising again in May-August.

The majority of illegal aliens apprehended between ports of entry are coming from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.



President Trump campaigned on a promise to build a "big, beautiful" wall on the Southwest Border, and he also promised to send illegal aliens out of the country.



At a rally in Kentucky in March, President Trump bragged, "Since the day of my election, we've already cut illegal immigration at the southern border by 61 percent. Think of that, 61 percent! And we haven't started."



But it appears that times have changed.

President Trump on Thursday said he is working with congressional Democrats on a "plan" to keep hundreds of thousands of dreamers in this country. Trump insisted there's no deal yet, and in exchange for an agreement on dreamers, he wants "very, very powerful border security."

But that apparently does not mean a new, high, prefab concrete wall, as Trump described it on the campaign trail.



Trump tweeted on Thursday: "The WALL, which is already under construction in the form of new renovation of old and existing fences and walls, will continue to be built."

Speaking later Thursday morning in Florida, Trump repeated that "What we want, we have to have a wall. If the wall is going to be obstructed when we need the funds at a little bit later date, when we are determining how much we need, then we're not doing anything."



