Border agents' encounters with migrants dropped 53% in fiscal year 2020 - but undocumented immigrants are increasingly being detained as crossings increase during pandemic
U.S Customs and Border Protection said encounters with undocumented immigrants decreased 53 per cent this fiscal year although recent data shows an uptick in migrants being intercepted by border agents.
According to data released Wednesday, CBP said there were encounters with 458,088 unlawful border crossers in the United States and at the point of entry with Mexico for fiscal year 2020. That's a sharp decline from the 877,509 encounters recorded during fiscal year 2019.
But CBP has seen a steady rise in migrants intercepted by border agents for unlawfully entering the United States since April, despite the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions imposed by President Donald Trump's administration to urge the rapid removal of undocumented immigrants.
During September, 54,771 individuals were apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol, a significant increase from 16,182 in April.
Migrant children walk on the Mexico side of the Rio Grande before they crossed with their father to the United States on June 15, 2019, before they surrendered to U.S. authorities in Texas
CBP data released Wednesday showed a 53% decrease in encounters with undocumented immigrants in the interior of the United States and at the port of entry with Mexico for fiscal year 2020. However, there has been a sharp increase in apprehensions of late
Pictured above are 100 undocumented immigrants from Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala who were found hiding inside a tractor trailer that was stopped on a highway by CBP agents in Laredo, Texas, on October 7
Government stats showed that as the epidemic picked up strength in the U.S., so did the encounters with undocumented migrants in May 21,593, June 30,836, July 38,53 and August 47,283.
Acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan said on Wednesday that he expected illegal immigration would again surge like it did in 2019 when the coronavirus pandemic ends.
'In fact we are anticipating that it is likely to be worse due to the deteriorating and worsening economic conditions not only In Mexico but in the entire western hemisphere that was exasperated by COVID-19,' Morgan said during a press conference in Tucson, Arizona. 'This makes it even more critical that we understand how important border security is your national security and continuing to provide CBP the tools we need to protect this great nation.'
Pictured above is group of Central Americans who were stopped by CBP after walking around a border fence in Sasabe, Arizona on June 6
Pictured are some of the 51 migrants from Guatemala and Mexico who were arrested by authorities at a stash house in Laredo, Texas, on July 31
Trump has made immigration a central focus of his presidency and a key part of his reelection campaign.
The Republican president and Democratic challenger Joe Biden are locked in a tight race in Arizona, a key battleground state in the November 3 election, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released last week.
The Trump administration issued a public health order in March that allows the government to quickly expel most migrants at the border, under Title 42 Expulsions.
Since March, CBP border enforcement data includes people 'expelled' under the public health order - more than 150,000.
The majority - 77 per cent - of those expelled under the new health measures have been single adult males from Mexico, according to CBP. During fiscal year 2019, 38% of the single adult males detained were from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
CBP encountered nearly 400,651 migrants in all of fiscal year 2020, which ended on September 30, a 53 percent decrease from the previous year, the agency said. There were also 57,437 encounters at the port of entry points along the 1,954-mile border with Mexico.
CBP did not say how many of those were repeat crossers.
The immigration enforcement agency said it discovered more than 280 houses used by human traffickers to hide 2,818 undocumented immigrants near the border. CBP also seized 276 tractor trailers that were ferrying 4,589 individuals who didn't have legal documents to be in the U.S.
'Our recidivism has gone up dramatically, but it's very geographically specific,' said Rodney Scott, chief of the Border Patrol. 'We're returning people very, very quickly, but our ability and willingness, if you will, to prosecute people, to have a consequence to the illegal activity of crossing the border, has been reduced.'
A man lowers a baby to her mother after the woman managed to climb down a border fence and enter San Diego on December 29, 2018