WASHINGTON — Apprehensions of undocumented migrants crossing the southern U.S. border passed 1.7 million in fiscal 2021 to hit an all-time high, according to Customs and Border Protection data obtained by NBC News, as U.S. officials turn their attention to a huge new caravan of migrants in southern Mexico that may head north as soon as this weekend.
The caravan gathered in Tapachula near the Mexico-Guatemala border includes thousands of migrants fleeing Haiti, Venezuela, Cuba and other Latin American countries, say two Department of Homeland Security officials. Violent clashes with Mexican police have broken out as desperate migrants attempt to leave the camp and continue their journey. New images from Telemundo show police meeting migrants with shields and beating them when they try to cross barriers.
The Mexican government is trying to keep the caravan from leaving Tapachula, but organizers of the group have pinned this Saturday as the date to start traveling to the U.S.
Oct. 18, 202101:59
One DHS official said the agency is keeping an eye on Tapachula as well as other areas where large groups have massed, such as Necocli, a northern Colombia town where more than 20,000 migrants, many of them Haitian, are camping as they prepare to make their way to the U.S. border.
But, the official said, migrants may recalculate and decide not to journey further due to the forceful push back by Mexican officials in Tapachula.
The official said the migrants may also be deterred by the U.S. response to the more than 30,000 Haitians who tried to cross into Del Rio, Texas in September. More than 8,000 of those were turned back to Mexico and more than 7,000 have so far been deported to Haiti.
The DHS official said migrants should now realize that traveling in large numbers decreases their odds of being able to enter the U.S.
By the end of the month, the Biden administration will have built an intelligence cell to share information within DHS about mass migrant movements like the Del Rio surge.
Oct. 8, 202103:21
Overall, CBP encountered more than 192,000 undocumented migrants at the southwest border in September, a slight decrease from July and August, when crossings topped 200,000. But overall, the 2021 fiscal year, which runs from October through September, hit border crossing totals never seen before.
The Washington Post first reported that more than 190,000 migrants were apprehended crossing the border in September, for a fiscal year total of 1.7 million.
Over 100,000 of the migrants stopped by CBP in September were expelled from the U.S. without being able to claim asylum, per a Centers for Disease Control authority known as Title 42 designed to restrict migration flows during the Covid pandemic. Immigration advocates have sued the Biden administration to stop the policy, arguing it is being used to deny asylum seekers their internationally guaranteed right to asylum hearings rather than to prevent the spread of Covid.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
