By Luis De Jesus
Sep 22, 2023, 10:38 PM EDT
A total of 232,972 migrants were detained at the border with Mexico last August by Customs and Border Protection agents. This amount represents an increase of 27% when compared to the figure of 183,494 reached in July. This is the highest number of monthly meetings so far this year.
Amid a new wave of migration on the country’s southwest border, the federal agency said it “expects to see fluctuations in migration, knowing that smugglers continue to deceive and exploit vulnerable individuals.”
However, he assured that “encounters along the southwest border remain below the levels seen in November and December 2022, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Public Health Order was in place. in force in compliance with Title 42.”
In the first months of the covid-19 pandemic, then-President Donald Trump used this measure in 2020 to allow immigration authorities to expeditiously expel foreigners trying to enter the country, including asylum seekers in the southwest border.
The government of current President Joe Biden repealed the Title 42 application order last May when the national emergency due to Covid-19 officially ended.
CBP indicated that recidivism after the end of the Title 42 health order has decreased significantly. “Among the 232,972 total encounters recorded in August, 11% involved people who had had at least one previous encounter in the previous 12 months,” compared to a rate of 35% in August 2022.
And in April 2023, the last month the health order was fully in effect, repeat encounters accounted for nearly 23% of total encounters.
“CBP remains vigilant against the ruthless smugglers and transnational criminal organizations that exploit vulnerable migrants, the same organizations that traffic deadly drugs that harm our communities,” said CBP Acting Chief Troy Miller.
Keep reading:
• They suspended the operations of the trains that immigrants use in Mexico to reach the border with the United States
• Texas governor sent more buses to the Eagle Pass and El Paso borders to transport migrants to sanctuary cities
• Gustavo Petro estimates that the number of migrants crossing the Darien to the US will reach one million next year