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The US Border Patrol arrested at least 91,000 migrants who crossed the overflowing border as family groups in August – as arrests rose 30 percent for two consecutive months.
For the first time under President Joe Biden, families were the largest demographic crossing the US-Mexico border, surpassing single adults. This influx follows the introduction of new restrictions aimed at slowing illegal crossings.
That’s more than the previous one-month high of 84,486 set in May 2019, which came during Donald Trump’s tenure. washington post reports.
The number of family units entering the United States in August brings the total number of people for that fiscal year to more than half a million people, according to preliminary data.
For the first time under President Joe Biden, families were the largest demographic crossing the US-Mexico border, surpassing single adults.
A migrant family, with young children detained by adults, stands next to a barbed wire fence as a member of the Texas National Guard stands guard on the banks of the Rio Bravo River, August 28 2023.
Migrants – including young children still in childbirth – cross the Rio Grande to the United States on August 4, 2023.
The influx of children traveling with adults to come to the United States shows that Biden’s simple warnings about families not crossing the border have not been heeded.
Throughout August, footage from the border showed a number of families – including very young children, toddlers and babies – scurrying down walkways, fording rivers and climbing the fences to enter Texas.
On August 4, a group of adult migrants accompanied by at least three children were seen desperately crossing the Rio Grande, the children wearing nappies traveling on their shoulders.
And in footage from August 21, mothers and fathers were seen hoisting their barefoot children over barbed wire fences in arduous attempts to enter the United States.
According to Post data, the Border Patrol made more than 177,000 arrests along the Mexican border in August. This is up slightly from July’s 132,652 and June’s 99,539.
Erin Heeter, spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said more than 17,000 parents and children have been repatriated since May.
She said the current moves are “fueled by seasonal trends.”
Under the Trump administration, they tried to take children away from their parents as a deterrent to families crossing the US-Mexico border – before turning to expanding the “Stay in Mexico” program.
A group of migrants from Colombia, Honduras and Guatemala successfully scale a border barrier
Migrants – including young children – from Central America search for an opening in the Concertina Barrier south of Eagle Pass, where a 1,000ft chain of buoys have been placed in the river to deter them from crossing the river Rio Grande to Texas.
In March, it was reported that Biden was considering a major U-turn in his immigration policy as administration officials considered reviving a Trump-era policy detaining families who cross the southern border illegally.
The president eliminated this practice when he took office and actively campaigned against it, saying that “families belong together”.
But as Title 42 — a pandemic measure that allows authorities to quickly deport migrants — expired in May, senior White House and Homeland Security officials discussed reinstating the program, reported the New York Times.
Biden campaigned against his predecessor’s use of family detention, which was also used under former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, for whom Biden served as vice president.
He even tweeted in June 2020, when a federal judge ordered the release of migrant children from detention centers due to the global pandemic: “Children should be released immediately from ICE detention with their parents.
The influx of children traveling with adults to come to the United States shows that Biden’s simple warnings about families not crossing the border have not been heeded.
A family of five claiming to be from Guatemala and a man claiming to be from Peru, in pink shirts, walk through the desert after crossing the border wall in the Tucson sector of the US-Mexico border on August 29, 2023.
Migrant families try to cross the border between Piedras Negras and Eagle Pass, in Piedras Negras, Mexico, August 4, 2023.
“It’s pretty simple, and I can’t believe I have to say it: families go together.”
Almost immediately after taking office, he closed all family detention centers in the United States, seeking a more humane approach to immigration.
Instead, the Biden administration implemented a practice of temporarily releasing families around the country and using anklets, traceable cellphones and other methods to track them.
Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas has since considered the end of family detention to be one of his main achievements.
And the Biden administration touted the end of the program in its fiscal year 2023 funding request, writing, “To ensure more humane treatment of families, the administration places less emphasis on family detention practices. »