HOUSTON (AP) – US Border Patrol's border arrests with Mexico reached their highest level in more than a decade in May, when officials warned they did not have access to the US Border Patrol. Money or resources needed to cope with soaring parents and children entering the country.
Officers made 132,887 apprehensions in May, the first time apprehensions had exceeded 100,000 since April 2007. This set a record with 84,542 adults and children apprehended. 11,507 were children traveling alone and 36,838 were single adults.
These figures underlie cross-border issues. Photos of families waiting in crowded cells and outdoor enclosures elicited outrage. Six children died last year after being arrested by border officials.
Government inspectors announced last week that they have found a 125-person facility in El Paso, Texas that can accommodate 700 people a day and 900 a day more. They were so tight that some resorted to toilets.
The last time the Border Patrol made 100,000 or more arrests a month, it was essentially to detain adults from Mexico to try to sneak past agents and enter the United States without being detained. detected.
Today, most border crossers come from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, these countries being devastated by gangs, violence and poverty. Many should eventually ask for asylum. After crossing the border, they usually stop and wait for agents to pick them up.
Border patrol facilities are not designed to accommodate families with children as young as newborns. Authorities awarded US $ 544,000 for the delivery of diapers, baby bottles, shower shoes and baby wipes to Donna, Texas, where the Border Patrol opened a tent for 500 migrants.
Children are generally detained for more than 72 hours by federal law and US guidelines on border protection and border protection. The agency quotes long-term detention centers for parents and children at maximum capacity.
"We are overwhelmed," said Randy Howe, executive director of operations at CBP. "It can not continue."
President Donald Trump has asked for $ 4.5 billion to deal with the influx of migrants, but Congress has not yet approved it.
It also threatened to impose a 5% tariff on Mexican products if local authorities did not restrict migration from Central America. Mexican officials have traveled to Washington this week to put pressure on the Trump government so that it does not bow to its threat.
Mexico has offered more options to Americans from Central America to stay in the country legally and has allowed the United States to return thousands of migrants with pending asylum claims under of an initiative of the Trump administration undergoing legal challenge.
About 200 Mexican police and immigration officials on Wednesday blocked the advance of about 1,000 Central American migrants on a southern route.
But the border patrol said officers in El Paso, Texas, had met more than 1,000 people crossed in the United States in a single group last week. The agents made 38,630 arrests in and around El Paso in May.
Officials say that they do not rely on the warmer summer weather that leads to a seasonal slowdown in migration, as is usually the case. Already, agents have apprehended large groups of migrants in the early days of June.
"We do not see any sign of a fall," said Brian Hastings, chief of border patrol order maintenance operations.
17PICTURES
Migrants to the United States trust the faith
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Pastor Jose Murcia, 47, preaches to migrants, part of a caravan of thousands of Central Americans traveling to the United States, outside a temporary shelter in Tijuana, Mexico, November 24, 2018 .
(REUTERS / Alkis Konstantinidis)
Nicolas Alonso Sanchez, 47, from Honduras, member of a caravan of thousands of Central American migrants traveling to the United States, poses for a photo while he is holding a cross in a shelter temporary in Tijuana, Mexico, November 24, 2018. "God helped me and gave me strength, helped me realize my dreams, God gave me all the strength to do all the way here, "said Sanchez.
(REUTERS / Alkis Konstantinidis)
Migrants, members of a caravan of thousands from Central America traveling to the United States, pray before the distribution of food in front of a temporary shelter in Tijuana, Mexico, on December 1, 2018.
(REUTERS / Alkis Konstantinidis)
Juan Francisco, 25, Honduras, member of a caravan of thousands of Central American migrants traveling to the United States, shows his tattoo of the 23rd Psalm of the Book of Psalms while he poses for a photo in front of a temporary shelter in Tijuana, Mexico November 26, 2018.
(REUTERS / Alkis Konstantinidis)
Victor Alfonso, 29, from Guatemala, is part of a caravan of thousands of Central Americans traveling to the United States. He takes a picture as he carries spells representing the Virgin of Guadalupe in a temporary shelter in Tijuana, Mexico, on November 26, 2018.
(REUTERS / Alkis Konstantinidis)
David Amador, 25, from Honduras, member of a caravan of thousands of Central American migrants traveling to the United States, poses for a photo while he is holding a cross in a center of Temporary accommodation in Tijuana, Mexico on November 28, 2018.
(REUTERS / Alkis Konstantinidis)
Migrants, members of a caravan of thousands from Central America traveling to the United States, raise their hands while praying before traveling by bus to a new shelter in Tijuana, Mexico, on November 30, 2018.
(REUTERS / Alkis Konstantinidis)
A migrant belonging to a caravan of thousands from Central America traveling to the United States is surrounded by a banner depicting the Virgin of Guadalupe in front of a cordon of riot police, while migrants attempt to reach the border wall between the United States and Mexico in Tijuana, Mexico on November 25, 2018.
(REUTERS / Alkis Konstantinidis)
Herso, 17, a native of Honduras, member of a caravan of thousands of Central American migrants traveling to the United States, poses for a photo while wearing a t-shirt representing the Virgin of Guadalupe in front of a temporary shelter in Tijuana, Mexico, November 24, 2018.
(REUTERS / Alkis Konstantinidis)
A pamphlet of Psalm 119: 105 is left on a self-made tent in a temporary shelter of a caravan of thousands of Central American migrants traveling to the United States, in Tijuana, Mexico, on November 27, 2018.
(REUTERS / Alkis Konstantinidis)
Migrants, part of a caravan from El Salvador to the United States, pray because they are blocked by the Mexican police during an operation to arrest them for their illegal entry into the country, in Metapa, at Mexico, November 21, 2018.
(REUTERS / Alkis Konstantinidis)
Migrants, members of a caravan of thousands from Central America traveling to the United States, raise their hands to listen to Pastor Jose Murcia's preaching (unshooted) in front of a temporary shelter in Tijuana, Mexico, November 24, 2018 .
(REUTERS / Alkis Konstantinidis)
A migrant from a caravan of thousands of Central Americans traveling to the United States sleeps with a book in Spanish "What does the Bible teach us?" in a temporary shelter in Tijuana, Mexico, November 24, 2018.
(REUTERS / Alkis Konstantinidis)
A written "Jesus Christ is the Lord" is seen on a car window in front of a temporary shelter for a caravan of thousands of Central American migrants traveling to the United States, in Tijuana, Mexico, on November 24, 2018 .
(REUTERS / Alkis Konstantinidis)
Elmer, 29, a native of Honduras and belonging to a caravan of thousands of migrants from Central America traveling to the United States, poses for a photo while he is holding an icon depicting Jesus Christ and the Virgin of Guadalupe at a waiting line for food distribution in front of a temporary shelter. in Tijuana, Mexico, November 24, 2018.
(REUTERS / Alkis Konstantinidis)
Juan Francisco, 25, a native of Honduras and a member of a caravan of thousands of Central American migrants traveling to the United States, shows his tattoo on which he reads "I can do anything with Christ who "Fortifies" while posing for a photo in front of a temporary shelter in Tijuana, Mexico on November 26, 2018.
(REUTERS / Alkis Konstantinidis)
An image of the Virgin of Guadalupe is seen in a tent of migrants belonging to a caravan of thousands from Central America trying to reach the United States, on a street in Tijuana, Mexico, December 15, 2018.
(REUTERS / Carlos Garcia Rawlins)
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