Illegal border crossings at the southern US border rose slightly in August. This is not the best news for the Joe Biden administration and Kamala Harris’ campaign less than 70 days before the November 5 elections, where border control has become one of the central issues of the election. The Democratic administration admitted this weekend that there was a slight uptick last month, but that the situation remains under control. “We continue to record the lowest number of arrests in the southwest region since September 2020,” said Alejandro Mayorkas, Biden’s Secretary of Homeland Security, on Saturday.
The figure breaks a five-month downward trend in border apprehensions. As of Thursday, Border Patrol agents had processed 54,000 people, according to two Customs and Border Protection officials cited by the AP. With three days left in the month, the number could reach 58,000 apprehensions. In July, by contrast, 56,400 apprehensions were documented.
San Diego, the city bordering Tijuana, Mexico, has once again become the epicenter of illegal crossings in August (it had already taken the top spot in May). It is followed by El Paso, Texas; and Tucson, Arizona. Authorities expect the migratory flow to increase during the fall months, when temperatures drop. The main nationalities encountered by the Border Patrol last month were Mexican, Guatemalan and Honduran.
The number may indicate that the number of crossings has stabilized. The downward trend has been achieved, among other factors, by Biden’s decision to put limits on asylum when 2,500 daily migrant apprehensions are recorded at customs. The measure was harshly criticized by human rights defenders and progressive sectors within the Democratic Party.
The drop in apprehensions brings the Biden administration closer to lifting the asylum ban. Under the executive order issued in June, the ban would be lifted if there were seven consecutive days with 1,500 or fewer apprehensions per day. It came close to doing so in July. In August, however, there was an average of 1,900 daily crossings.
In December 2023, the Administration documented some 250,000 illegal crossings, a historic record since records began. Since then, and in the middle of an election year, the Executive has implemented a plan to curb the number of people arriving from the south and amid attacks from Donald Trump and the Republican Party, who accuse Democrats of having an open-door policy in immigration management. One of the central promises of the former president’s campaign is to carry out the largest deportation in the country’s history.
The government has tried to reorganize the migratory flow with the help of an application called CBP One. Migrants must begin their journey by filling out a digital form there and without leaving their countries of origin. This tool has opened the doors of the United States to some 765,000 people until July, according to official figures. Another 520,000 citizens of Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela and Nicaragua have been able to migrate legally, as long as they have financial support in the United States. The program words The humanitarian aid program was briefly suspended because fraud was detected in the negotiations, but it was resumed this week.
Alejandro Mayorkas called on Congress to pass the bipartisan border control law. This legislation was arduously negotiated by Democratic, Republican and independent senators and includes tough surveillance measures, greater resources for infrastructure, the Border Patrol and to relieve the courts that handle immigration cases, which suffer from years of backlog. Donald Trump called on the senators of his party not to approve it. Kamala Harris promises to sign it into law if she reaches the White House.
The Interior Secretary acknowledged on Saturday the contribution of countries in the region, which have helped the United States in its immigration policy. Mexican authorities have formed a first containment wall in southern Mexico. In August, the number of immigrants from Colombia and Ecuador decreased, thanks to deportation flights coordinated with the governments of those countries. On Friday, for example, one left for Bogotá with 28 people. 117 people have been expelled to Colombia since August 20.
The Panamanian government has carried out four deportation flights in recent days of August with migrants detained in the Darien jungle. One plane took off for Manta on Thursday with 30 Ecuadorians. Nine of them had criminal records. It is the second flight financed by the United States government, while Panamanians have covered the other two. The number of people waiting in Darien, a critical step on the journey north, is at its lowest level in two years. Even so, about 400 people pass through it every day.
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