The top U.S. border official celebrated another significant downturn in the number of people attempting to illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border, and credited the Trump administration’s efforts to secure partners south of the border for the change.
In August, just under 51,000 people were arrested for illegally crossing the southwest border while a bit over 13,000 people presented at ports of entry, acting U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan announced at the White House Monday afternoon. The total 64,006 total figure encountered is down 56% from the peak of 144,000 at the height of the border crisis in May. It was 82,000 in July.
Morgan said “unprecedented support” from Mexico and Central American countries are major factors in why the number of encounters, which the government uses as an indicator for the number of people attempting to enter, has continued to decline.
“The Northern Triangle countries especially, along with the government of Mexico, have really joined the United States as true partners for the first time,” said Morgan. “They really are seeing this as a true regional crisis that needs continuing coordination cooperation and effort. That this is not just a United States problem, that this is a regional crisis that needs regional support and regional solutions.”
Morgan said Mexican authorities have deployed 10,000 troops to their southern border with Guatemala since early June, after President Trump threatened to impose tariffs if Mexico did not deter more people traveling through the country to the U.S. Another 15,000 troops were deployed to Mexico’s northern border.
Since Jan. 1, 134,000 people have been arrested by Mexican authorities while illegally passing through the country, more than the total 83,000 arrested in all of calendar 2018.
“We are absolutely encouraged by the downward turn of [U.S.] apprehension numbers, but we know these numbers can always spike upwards,” said Morgan, referring to historical trends that show slight increases from summer into fall. “We cannot rely solely on the government of Mexico or our Central American partners to solve the pull factors created by our broken system. Unless the laws change, these numbers will rise again next year just as we’ve seen in the past.”
Morgan credited the Migration Protection Protocols for contributing to the downturn in people trying to enter the United States from noncontiguous countries in Central America. Since the implementation of the program earlier this year, CBP officers working at ports of entry along the southwest border have turned more than 42,000 people away to wait asylum decisions in Mexico.
The Washington Examiner Wednesday reported the number of apprehensions, ahead of the announcement Monday, showing that the number of people arrested dropped for a third month in a row in August.
The 50,693 figure was the lowest tally since January, when the number rose drastically as tens of thousands of families began arriving each month.
The apprehensions include asylum-seeking families who surrendered to agents as well as others who tried to evade capture but were arrested in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, but it does not include those who presented at ports of entry.
The August figure is now more on trend with the average number of people brought in per month over the past five years. Morgan did not answer whether the crisis was officially over.
“That’s tricky,” said Morgan. “If I could see daily [apprehensions] around 500 a day, that’s manageable, I think … The magic number is zero, right? But we have to be realistic.”
As of Aug. 31, Border Patrol had arrested 811,016 people between official crossing points along the southwest border in the first 11 months of fiscal 2019. Approximately 660,000 people, or 81%, were from countries other than Mexico.
More than 72,000 of the 811,000 apprehensions were of children under the age of 18 who arrived without an adult. Only 3,726 children showed up at the border in August, the lowest figure in a month more than 11 months.
An additional 4,017 immigrants were arrested along the Canadian border between October and August. Along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, 3,328 illegal entry arrests were reported in that same time frame.
Overall, illegal crossings have climbed since the beginning of the Trump administration. In March 2017, they dropped to a 17-year low when only 12,500 people were apprehended. That number began climbing in mid-2017 from 20,000 to 30,000 arrests each month. It surpassed an average of 40,000 arrests per month by the spring of 2018 and continued climbing to around 50,000 each month last fall. In February, arrests spiked to 66,000 before dramatically jumping to 99,000 in April and then reaching May’s 13-year high.
