August ended hours ago, but the month promises to leave records for illegal immigration in the United States. The number of immigrant crossings has skyrocketed in recent weeks, according to figures from the Department of Homeland Security. This breaks a downward trend that the Joe Biden government had achieved thanks to the end of Title 42, which allowed the Administration more severe punishments for those who enter the country illegally. The numbers from immigration authorities indicate that there is a significant uptick in the number of families making the perilous journey north. The month just ended left the highest number of arrests on the border with Mexico for this group since May 2019, in the midst of the Donald Trump Administration.
At least 91,000 family members (some of the parents with one child or more) were apprehended at the southern US border during August, according to preliminary figures from the Office of Customs and Border Protection (CBP, for its acronym in English). ) in hands of The Washington Post, who has published the news. The figure for August, pending official confirmation, represents an increase compared to the 86,200 arrests of family units registered in July. Before this, you have to go back to December 2022 to find a month that has exceeded 70,000 arrests in the area.
The number of families that have crossed the border only shows part of the problem facing the Biden Administration. This fight to reduce illegal immigration heading into an election year where border security will be one of the most important issues for the Republican voter. If the number of unaccompanied minors and single adults are added to this figure, the situation is more complex. August has left at least 177,000 apprehensions made by the Border Patrol along the line with Mexico. It is an increase of 77% compared to June (99,539) and the second highest figure since the 183,000 in April, the last month that Title 42 was in force, a rule that allowed migrants to attempt the crossing several times with almost no consequences.
If the figures advanced by the post, 45,000 more people would have entered the country irregularly in August than in July. At that time, the Border Patrol apprehended 132,600 immigrants, of which 60,000 were family members. The dangerous journey of thousands of people, originating mainly from the Northern Triangle of Central America, was made during one of the hottest months of 2023. In the Tucson Sector (Arizona) more than 1,100 rescues were made of immigrants who could not stand the high temperatures of July. “Unfortunately, mortal remains were also found,” says CBP. The El Paso Sector (Texas) recently reported that this year is deadlier for migrants. The Texan region has documented 134 deaths, an increase of 188% compared to the previous fiscal year (October 2021 to September 2022).
A Homeland Security spokeswoman told the US capital newspaper that authorities last month increased the number of deportation flights for migrant families. The agency assures that since May 17,000 people who make up a family nucleus have been sent to their countries of origin (out of a total of 200,000 expulsions).
The Biden Administration assured in 2021 that it does not detain or deport women who are pregnant or lactating, one of the decisions with which it intends to distance itself from the Trump era, where families were separated at the border on purpose as a way of discouraging crossings. illegal. President Biden ended that measure when he arrived at the White House and promised to return humanity to immigration policy, but the sharp increase in irregular crossings forced him to toughen the measures.
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Hondurans increase
In June, the number of apprehensions made by Border Patrol in the area remained below 100,000 people. A month later, illegal crossings increased to exceed 132,000 apprehensions. The main increase was in families from Honduras. In May and June, US authorities had detained between 4,000 and 5,000 Hondurans per month in the area. In July, the number shot up to more than 16,000 citizens of the Central American country. Something similar happens with Guatemala. More than 13,600 citizens of this nation, belonging to family nuclei, were detained in July. It is a monthly increase of more than 350% compared to June, when fewer than 4,000 arrests were made. From Mexico there were 10,324 apprehensions, an increase from the 6,000 averaged in the previous three months.
August will leave record numbers, but despite this there are some offices along the busy border that have reported a decrease in the migratory flow. This is the case of the El Paso sector, which processes some 800 immigrants every day with Title 8, which allows an immigrant to be detained, transferred to a detention center for deportation, and prohibited from entering the country for up to five years. In the first months of the year, Title 42 was still in force, agents in this Texas city processed about 2,700 people per day. Most of the arrests in that sector are of unaccompanied men (255,000 since October of last year). The members of families captured in that region amount to 88,900. There have also been 20,000 unaccompanied minors registered in the last nine months.
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