Public data for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) show that fiscal year (FY) 2023 did in fact set a new all‑time record for migrant encounters at the southern (U.S.–Mexico) border, higher than FY 2022.

• Multiple summaries of CBP data report 2,378,944 encounters at the Southwest border in FY 2022, which at the time was the highest number ever recorded there. (abc15.com)
• The same data series shows 2,475,669 encounters at the Southwest border in FY 2023, a new record and about a 4% increase over 2022. (newsweek.com) A House Homeland Security Committee factsheet and op‑ed using CBP numbers likewise note that FY 2023 Southwest border encounters were “more than 2.4 million,” exceeding the 2,378,944 recorded in FY 2022. (homeland.house.gov)
• The Migration Policy Institute’s 2024 statistical overview, based on CBP data, states that of more than 3.2 million total encounters at all U.S. borders in FY 2023, nearly 2.5 million were at the U.S.–Mexico border, calling this “the highest number of border encounters on record,” and explicitly noting it surpassed the nearly 2.4 million in FY 2022. (migrationpolicy.org)
• Some news outlets had earlier summarized FY 2022 as “about 2.7 million migrant encounters along the southern border,” matching the podcast’s rough “~2.7 million” reference, but those appear to be using a broader or differently labeled tally; in any case, later FY 2023 data still show higher totals than FY 2022 on those broader national measures as well. (goodmorningamerica.com)

Because FY 2023 southern‑border encounters clearly exceeded FY 2022’s totals under both the standard Southwest‑border series and broader nationwide-enforcement tallies, the core claim that FY 2023 would set a new all‑time annual record for migrant encounters at the U.S. southern border is supported by the data. The prediction is therefore right.