Migration crisis: US-Mexico border crossings break records again in July

Detentions of migrants at the US-Mexico border broke again records in July and reached the highest levels since 2000. Border officials recorded 212,672 encounters with migrants in the past month, 12% more only in June, according to data released Thursday by Customs and Border Protection (CBP). On Wednesday, senior officials from the two countries met in Mexico City to study data on irregular migration and propose strategies to deter it.

Border arrests tend to decline during the summer months, but July’s number is 12% higher than the previous month, official data shows. The figure, 212,672 meetings in the past month, is the highest since March 2000, when 223,305 border crossings were recorded.

“The large number of deportations during the pandemic has contributed to a larger than usual number of migrants making multiple attempts to cross the border,” CBP said in a statement. According to their data, 27% of those people had attempted to cross the border at least once in the past year. As the authorities count the “meetings” and not the people, the total number of meetings, specifies the official letter, “exaggerates” the number of individuals arriving at the border. If only people are taken into account, the figure recorded by the authorities in July is 154,288.

However, since October, which marks the start of the fiscal year in the United States, 845,307 individuals have attempted to cross the border illegally. During the same period last year, 796,400 people had tried. Half of the people who wanted to travel to the United States from Mexico in the past month were adult males traveling alone. The number of unaccompanied minors, meanwhile, rose to 18,962 encounters, an increase of 24%, according to official figures.

More than 45% of the 212,672 migrants found in July by border officials were deported under Title 42, a rule put in place by Donald Trump’s administration at the start of the pandemic to close the land border to non-essential activities and make it more difficult to apply for asylum. It is an exception to the law which allows the immediate expulsion, without any formality, of migrants. “The vast majority of single adults and many families continue to be deported under Title 42, and those who cannot be deported under Title 42 and do not have a legal basis to stay are placed in proceedings. accelerated deportation, ”says CBP. in his statement.

On Wednesday, the UN warned Joe Biden’s government that the hot deportations of migrants from the United States to southern Mexico are straining the capacity of the humanitarian response and increasing the risk of covid-19 contagion at the borders. On the same day, a group of US officials led by Jake Sullivan, White House National Security Advisor and National Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas were received by Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard for study data on irregular migration. and suggest strategies to discourage it. One of the concerns of officials is the increase in these numbers in the coming months due to the economic recovery in the United States from the pandemic.

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