Arrests of migrants on the United States’ border with Mexico reached in March an unprecedented level for fifteen years, according to statistics released Thursday which increase the pressure on President Joe Biden, accused by the opposition of downplaying the crisis.
More than 172,000 people were apprehended by border guards last month after entering America illegally, 71% more than in February.
Among them, there are still more unaccompanied minors, whose number has doubled to 18,890, a historic record, according to data from the customs and border guards (CPB).
The most significant increase, however, concerns migrants arriving with their families, from around 20,000 in February to 53,823 in March.
These flows had started to increase in 2020 but have clearly jumped since Joe Biden came to the White House. They pose a considerable challenge to the Democratic administration, which is committed not to deport unaccompanied minors.
As of April 6, more than 20,000 of them were in government reception facilities, some of which are ill-suited to the care of children, sometimes very young.
The agents “do what they can to take the best care of these unaccompanied minors but the situation is untenable”, recognized the elected Democrat Veronica Escobar at a press conference, advocating the opening of new avenues legal immigration to stop these flows of illegal immigrants.
For their part, the Republicans accuse Joe Biden of having caused a “draft” by relaxing the migration policies of his predecessor Donald Trump, and of ignoring the problem thus created.
“Five times more arrivals than in March 2020 and President Biden still does not have a viable plan”, tweeted Senator Tom Cotton.
“The chaos at the border could have been prevented if we had kept the policies of President Trump, which worked,” said House of Representatives elected official Jim Jordan, on Fox News.
“Winter”
As soon as he came to power, Joe Biden suspended deportations of undocumented migrants, introduced a bill to offer them a path to citizenship and started admitting some of the asylum seekers who had been waiting for months in camps in Mexico.
At his first press conference on March 25, the Democrat defended his approach. “I will not apologize for having abolished policies that violated international law and human dignity,” he said.
“Every year, there is a significant increase in arrivals at the border in winter”, because migrants “are less likely to die from hot in the desert,” he added.
In a statement Thursday, the border guards held a comparable speech. “We are facing an increase in arrivals and arrests, this is nothing new,” wrote Troy Miller, who currently heads these services: “Arrivals started to increase in April 2020 and our past experiences have prepared us for challenges this year. “
Nearly 104,000 migrants were immediately turned back under rules adopted to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus, border guards said without specifying what happened to the others.
In theory, all adults and families are sent back across the border, but Mexican authorities will not agree to take back all families, especially those with children under the age of six.
Half of these migrants are from Central America, including Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, where they flee poverty and the violence of drug trafficking gangs. More than 62,000 are Mexican, according to CPB statistics.
The Minister of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas went to Texas on Thursday, where he notably met with associative officials, far from the media.