Illegal border crossings along the US-Mexico border set a record in June, despite a decline from May

Despite a sharp drop from May, arrests of migrants illegally crossing the US-Mexico border last month set a record for any June with available data, government figures released on Friday show.

The US Border Patrol reported handling 191,898 migrants along the southern border in June, down nearly 14% from May, when the agency made over 222,000 arrests, an all-time high monthly high. The previous record for June was reported last year when border police made 178,649 arrests.

Another 15,518 migrants were processed by U.S. authorities at government ports of entry, where the Biden administration has taken in some asylum seekers it deemed at risk, according to statistics from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which is a federal court in Texas.

The high number of migrant detentions, due in part to record arrivals from countries outside Mexico and the North Triangle of Central America, and a significant rate of repeat illegal crossings, has left the roughly 23,000 U.S. immigration officers and officers stationed along the border with Mexico are, continue to be burdened.

The unprecedented scale of unauthorized migration at the southern border has also presented major humanitarian and operational challenges to the US government and has become a political burden on President Biden, who has vowed to create a “humane” and “orderly” system by reversing Trump’s no-compromise stance. era politics.

Factoring in June numbers, US border agencies processed migrants over 1.7 million times in fiscal 2022, a number that beats the previous record set in 2021, even three months before the next fiscal year begins in October.

Still, the easing in fears over the last month could suggest that hot summer border arrivals are plateauing – as has been the historical trend – after rising to record levels this spring. The number of arrests of migrants in June reversed a four-month upward trend in which over 200,000 arrests were registered in each three months.

“While month-to-month fluctuations are normal, we saw a 14% decrease in encounters compared to the previous month,” CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus said in a statement. “We are committed to implementing our strategy of reducing irregular migration, dissuading migrants from the dangerous journey and stepping up enforcement efforts against people smuggling organizations.”

Just over 90,381, or 47% of Border Patrol agent arrests in June resulted in migrants being swiftly deported to Mexico or their home country under a pandemic-era emergency policy known as Title 42, which a federal court required the Biden administration to do , data show from Friday.

Those treated under Title 42 will be expelled on public health grounds with no opportunity to seek asylum, a right protected by US law. But not all frontier workers are processed under Title 42, and application of the policy depends on nationality, age, vulnerability, the sector in which they enter the United States, and other factors.

In June, CBP officials along the southern border reported that single adult migrants were processed 140,196 times; Parents and children travel as a family 51,780 times; and unaccompanied minors 15,271 times, according to agency figures released on Friday. Around 56% of single adults and 27% of families received treatment for Title 42 deportation in the past month.

Migrants treated under US immigration law who are not deported under Title 42 can be released with a court order, placed in long-term detention facilities, or deported under regular deportation procedures, including a program known as “expedited deportation.”

Unaccompanied migrant children who are not Mexican nationals are placed in Department of Health shelters, where they remain until placed with a sponsor, usually a relative in the United States, or until they turn 18. Families with children who have not been deported are usually released with a summons to appear before an immigration court, since the Biden administration has ended long-term detention of minors.

Adult migrants traveling without children are the population most affected by Title 42, as many of them are from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador, the nationalities that the Mexican government allows the US into its territory to report. Single adults who are not deported are usually released with a court order or arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

In June, US immigration officials deported 12,888 migrants under regular deportation procedures while conducting 79,652 releases, according to government statistics filed Friday in federal court in Texas.

While there was an increase in arrests of migrants from Guatemala, Honduras, Venezuela and El Salvador in June compared to May, arrivals from the other main sending countries of migrants from Mexico, Cuba, Colombia, Nicaragua, Haiti and Brazil fell.

More than 66,000 encounters with migrants in June involved Mexicans, 24,617 Guatemalans, 23,972 Hondurans, 16,170 Cubans, 13,194 Venezuelans, 12,594 Colombians, 11,204 Nicaraguans, 9,094 Salvadorans, 4,084 Haitians and 4,025 Brazilians.