The number of migrant arrivals reported along the U. S. -Mexico border in fiscal year 2022 topped 2 million in August, an all-time high due in part to unprecedented levels of migration from Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, according to government data released Monday.
Migrant encounters along the U. S. southern borderThe U. S. rose to 203,598 last month, reversing a downward trend seen over the past two months, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data.
The number included 181,160 Border Patrol arrests of immigrants who entered the U. S. illegally. In the U. S. , virtually the same point as in July, as well as 22,437 immigrants and asylum seekers processed at official ports of entry, a slight buildup since last month.
A month from the end, CBP officials stationed along the Mexican border processed migrants more than 2. 1 million times in fiscal year 2022, up from the previous record set in fiscal year 2021, when the company recorded 1. 7 million encounters with migrants.
However, one million of the meetings recorded through CBP that fiscal year resulted in the immediate deportation of migrants to northern Mexico or their home country under Title 42, a coronavirus-era order that blocks access to the U. S. asylum system. In the U. S. , according to CBP statistics. . .
The unprecedented number of encounters has also been inflated through a significant number of migrants seeking to enter the U. S. They are counted several times, after their deportation to Mexico under Title 42, which does not come with fines for fraud or immigration, unlike classic deportations.
In August, nearly a quarter of all encounters with migrants concerned other people who had already been detained by the U. S. border government. “The U. S. has been in the U. S. over the past year, CBP said Monday.
One of the main points that has fueled the high levels of migrant arrests over President Biden’s past year is the arrival of tens of thousands of migrants from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua, who have made record numbers to the U. S. border. In the U. S. in recent months.
In August, migrants from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua accounted for more than a third of all border arrests. Their arrival is part of a broader and unprecedented backlog of migration from outside Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, whose citizens accounted for the vast majority of migrants processed through the U. S. border government. U. S. before the COVID-19 pandemic.
More than 25,000 Venezuelans entered detained at the U. S. border. The U. S. Economy In August, a monthly record, making Venezuela the largest source of migrants to the southern border, Mexico.
Nearly 7 million Venezuelans have fled as part of the largest displacement crisis in the Western Hemisphere, according to the United Nations. While many have settled in other South American countries such as Colombia, Venezuelans hoping to succeed in the United States have crossed the Darien Gap. , Panama’s roadless jungle, in record numbers in the last month, according to Panamanian government data.
CBP officials along the U. S. -Mexico border also treated more than 19,000 Cubans and only about 12,000 Nicaraguans in August.
Unlike Mexicans and most Central Americans, the United States cannot deport Venezuelans, Cubans and Nicaraguans to Mexico or their home countries because of the limits imposed by Mexico and strained diplomatic relations with the authoritarian governments of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. For this reason, most migrants from those countries are processed and then released so that they can file their asylum claims in the United States.
Biden’s management has attributed the mass exodus from Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua to the policies of their leftist regimes and the terrible economic problems faced by many other people there.
“Failed communist regimes in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba are driving a new wave of migration in the Western Hemisphere, adding to the recent backlog of encounters on the southwestern border of the United States,” CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus said Monday.
This year’s unprecedented wave of migration has created formidable operational and humanitarian situations for the Biden administration, which promised to create a more humane immigration system, adding to reversing several difficult Border policies from the Trump era.
In El Paso, Texas, for example, the US border government was recently forced to release many immigrants into the city because its services were exhausted.
Record levels of border apprehensions also have a political disadvantage for the Biden administration, with Republicans in Congress and in the mansions of governors across the country accusing it of being too lenient with immigrants entering the country illegally.
Border policy has intensified this month due to efforts by Republican governors in Texas and Florida to send immigrants to some Democratic-led jurisdictions, adding Washington, D. C. , New York, Chicago and Martha’s Vineyard.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Rob DeSantis, both Republicans, have argued that jurisdictions with so-called “sanctuary” policies that restrict cooperation with federal deportation agents are more likely to accommodate immigrants. adopt stricter border policies.
But Biden’s management and Democrats have denounced the immigrant transportation formula as inhumane, with Republican-led states dehumanizing asylum seekers for political purposes.
One of the reasons border meetings escalated in August was the Biden administration’s continued efforts to improve the processing of asylum seekers at ports of entry, which experts say deters some immigrants from entering the country illegally.
In August, U. S. officials at access ports along the southern border admitted 15,906 asylum seekers deemed vulnerable The 42 humanitarian waivers, a 37 percent increase since July, according to government knowledge shared with a federal court.
Just over 130,000 border patrol arrests in August concerned single adult immigrants, some of whom were deported; 39,221 parents and youth involved traveling with families, most of whom are released with court notice; and 11,013 unaccompanied minors, who are being moved to government shelters, according to CBP data.
While immigrant arrests reached record levels under Biden, illegal border crossings were generally highest in the early 2000s, when the Border Patrol had fewer agents and generation to detain people, adding those who evaded detection.
Editor’s note: An earlier edition of this report indicated that CBP recorded more than 2 million arrests along the southern border that fiscal year. CBP has recorded more than 2 million “encounters,” which come with Border Patrol apprehensions as well as migrants. being processed at ports of entry.