The number of arrests of undocumented Colombians in the United States, especially on the southern border, continued on a downward trajectory during the month of July, according to the new official statistics of the Customs and Border Patrol (CPB for its acronym in English) that were known by this newspaper.
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According to the CPB during that month, arrests totaled 6,627, of which 5,952 were registered at this point of entry.
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Although the figures for July mark a slight increase compared to the previous month (June) when 5,384 were documented, This is the second lowest recorded since January 2022 (4,328) and represents a third of the number of arrests that have been made on average over the last 18 months..
In May, for example, the number of detainees had reached more than 18,000.
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The number is also low when compared to July of last year when 14,015 Colombians were arrested. In general terms, The new statistic breaks with the upward trend of the last two fiscal years in the United States, where all previous records in terms of arrests were broken..
In fiscal year 2022, the border patrol arrested more than 130,000 Colombians, while in 2023 there are already 1,434,617, a record number in at least 30 years of this type of statistics.
Although the reasons behind the downturn that has been occurring since June are not clear, there are several factors that could be influencing. On the one hand, there are the new immigration measures that the Joe Biden administration has been applying since the end of the so-called Title 42 in May. and that they now provide strong punishments for people who have been arrested without having previously applied for asylum in the country that served as a transit point to reach the United States.
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Deportation in these cases -as of May 11- implies that the person will no longer be able to enter the United States or apply for any type of immigration visa for at least five years.
Additionally, in the specific case of Colombians, the announcement of a family reunification program for nationals with relatives in the United States and the efforts of the governments of both countries to expand legal migration opportunities could have begun to have an impact on the flow.
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Likewise, other factors, such as the extreme temperatures that have been recorded in this area of the country, are mentioned as possible causes of the decline. A few weeks ago, in fact, the border patrol reported that a Colombian woman had died after trying to cross the border on one of the hottest days of summer.
Even so, the collapse of the migration of Colombians is particular when compared with the figures of illegal immigration of other nationalities. Although in June there was a decrease in the number of immigrants detained compared to the previous month (from 275,000 in May to 211,000), arrests in July rose again to 245,000, which is a similar figure to that of the same month. in 2022 (239 thousand).
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However, in the case of Colombians, it continued to be 200 percent lower when compared to July of last year and May of this year.
SERGIO GOMEZ MASERI
EL TIEMPO correspondent
Washington
On Twitter @sergom68
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