Migration drama: nearly 19,000 boys crossed the US border alone

WASHINGTON.- More than 172,000 undocumented immigrants, including nearly 19,000 unmarried children, have crossed the border between the United States and Mexico in March, the month with the highest number of arrests for nearly two decades in the strip that separates the two countries, an unprecedented wave that has increased pressure on Joe Biden’s government to try to contain the arrival of foreigners in the country amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The latest figures from the humanitarian drama on the country’s southern border paint a grim picture. The number of immigrants who tried to settle in the country without a visa nearly doubled in a month –More than 70% increase between February and March–In the six months since last October, more people have already wanted to enter the United States than in the previous twelve months.

Border authorities also reported that in March, there has been an unprecedented number of minors who have traveled alone from their country: 18,890, double the number in February. The previous record was recorded in May 2019.

The federal government attributed the new wave of immigrants from Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to drug-related violence, natural disasters in the region, poverty and homelessness.

The border crisis – which the White House refuses to call that – has drawn strong criticism from Republican opposition to Biden, whom they accuse of encouraging the massive influx of foreigners with his campaign promises and the elimination of Donald’s politics. Trump, who imposed a “zero tolerance” policy on the border. The president categorically rejected the criticism a few days ago during his first official press conference.

The reasons

“The reason they come is that this is the time when they can travel with the least chance of dying on the road from the heat in the desert, number one. Number two, they’re coming because of the circumstances in the country, ”Biden said. “The way to deal with this problem is with a bipartisan plan of over $ 700,000 million to tackle the causes people are leaving for.”added.

To deal with the crisis, Biden has entrusted Vice President Kamala Harris with the responsibility of designing this plan, who is leading a team that includes Ricardo Zuñiga, White House Special Envoy for the Northern Triangle, and Roberta Jacobson. , who was an ambassador to Mexico. and headed the Western Hemisphere Department of the State Department during Barack Obama’s administration, and now he’s moved to the White House to advise Biden on the border.

Harris reached out to Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador this week to advance the federal government’s strategy. But Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador, has strained relations with Washington and has refused to meet Zuñiga, also this week, during the official tour of Central America.

“Every government in the Northern Triangle has a role to play,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said during one of his regular press conferences this week when asked about Bukele.

“From now on, with regard to the Government of El Salvador, we have, as you know, strong relations with El Salvador and its people, and we will continue to work closely with our Salvadoran partners to meet the challenges of the region. “, he insisted.

Bukele recently hired Tom Shannon of the Arnold & Porter Company and former career American diplomat for Latin America as a lobbyist in Washington. Shannon also has among its clients the governments of Alberto Fernández, Lenin Moreno and the interim government of Juan Guaidó of Venezuela.

Meanwhile, the numbers at the border are getting worse by the day. Since last October, when the current exercise began in the United States, the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has intercepted more than 569,800 foreigners at the border, a 24 percent increase over the total. over the whole exercise. 2020, when migration was limited by the coronavirus pandemic.

Border officials said the majority of those detained at the southwestern border remain single adults, who are deported to their countries of origin. In March alone, the United States deported 103,900 people, nearly three in ten of whom were previously deported aliens.

“CBP has seen an increase in encounters and arrests. This is nothing new, ”Troy Miller, head of CBP, said in a statement. “We are committed to finding a balance between the need to maintain border security, to care for those in our custody and to ensure the safety of the American people and our workforce,” he said. -he adds.

Yet the US federal government now has more than 20,000 minors in custody, an unprecedented number, and the latest data shows they spend significantly more time in federal agency facilities than the 72 hours required by law.

The Biden government attempted to expand the capacity to accommodate minors before referring them to the Department of Health, which must then find an adult in the country – in many cases this is usually a parent who is already in the United States – to take care of the boys.