Since the lifting of the pandemic-era Title 42 immigration policy last week, the Department of Homeland Security has seen a steady decline in encounters at the Southwest border between migrants and Border Patrol agents, officials said Wednesday.

Blas Nuñez-Neto, DHS’ assistant secretary for border and immigration policy, told reporters there has been an average of about 4,400 encounters over the past four days — and fewer than 4,000 each of the last two days. That amounts to a 56% drop from the roughly 10,000 daily encounters in the four days leading up Title 42’s expiration Friday.

The 10,000 figure reflected a pre-transition surge. Last May, there were about 8,000 encounters a day, still well above this week’s totals.

Title 42 allowed the U.S. to quickly expel migrants, even those seeking asylum, to prevent the further spread of COVID-19. The federal government has returned to Title 8 immigration law, used for decades leading up to the pandemic.

The expiration of the policy was expected to bring a flood of migrants to the border. Republicans — and some Democrats — last week accused the Biden administration of not adequately preparing for the predicted influx of migrants.

But U.S. officials have been stressing that the border is not open and urging migrants who want to enter the U.S. to apply for legal pathways, which have been expanded, using a mobile app. Officials have warned that those who attempt to go around the system will face severe consequences — swift deportation, a five-year ban if they have no legal basis to enter the U.S. and criminal prosecution if they attempt to cross the border again.

“This transition is the culmination of nearly two years of preparation and a whole-of-government approach to return to traditional Title 8 immigration processing,” Nuñez-Neto said.

Since Friday, thousands of migrants, including single adults and families, have been returned to Mexico and other countries, Nuñez-Neto said. 

He added that the number of encounters with Venezuelan nationals is down 98% since last week to fewer than 50 a day over the past three days. Daily encounters with people from Mexico have fallen from 1,900 a day to 1,000, while encounters with Colombians have declined from 1,400 to around 500.

But Nuñez-Neto reiterated that “it is still too soon to drawn any firm conclusions here about where these trends will go in the coming days and weeks.”

Agents have processed more than 5,000 individuals who made appointments at border points of entry through the app, he added. Tens of thousands are applying each day, but only 1,000 appointments are available. Nuñez-Neto said officials are working to expand the number of appointment slots.

Meanwhile, there has been a decline in the number of migrants being held at Customs and Border Protection facilities, he said. 

Republicans, however, continue to criticize the Biden administration’s handling of migration. In a letter Tuesday to other governors asking them to send law enforcement personnel to the border, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott wrote that Biden has “willfully refused to enforce our nation’s immigration laws while systematically dismantling every effective border security policy that previously led to the lowest number of illegal border crossings in decades.” 

Abbott argued that the end of Title 42 would have been significantly worse if it had not been for Texas’ actions, which have included deploying a new tactical border unit and hundreds more National Guard troops. 

Twenty-four Republican governors responded to Abbott’s letter by pledging to support Texas’ efforts. 

“The federal government’s response handling the expiration of Title 42 has represented a complete failure of the Biden Administration,” the governors said in a joint statement.

Asked about Abbott’s call for assistance, Nuñez-Neto said all law enforcement actions at the border should be coordinated with the federal government. 

“There is outstanding coordination taking place at the local level each and every day,” he said. “We have seen, however, at times [Florida] Gov. Ron DeSantis and Gov. Abbott take actions that are being done really for purely political reasons and that do not involve the kind of coordination that we really need to see at the border.”

DeSantis said Tuesday he is sending 1,100 National Guard soldiers and law enforcement officers to Texas.