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Washington (CNN) - Arrests of migrant families and unaccompanied children on the southern border reached record levels last year, driven by an increase in asylum seekers, interim Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan announced Tuesday .
The figures provided showed the dramatic increase in border detentions throughout the year, as well as an increase in seizures of all hard narcotics and a new record of travelers processed by customs.
The number of migrants on the southern border last fiscal year, which totaled nearly one million, Morgan announced this month, overwhelmed the US authorities. The influx led to overcrowding in the facilities and, in some cases, to deteriorating conditions, which raised concerns within the agency and between legislators and immigrant advocacy groups.
U.S. Border Patrol UU. 473,682 family members were arrested last fiscal year, compared to 107,212 in fiscal year 2018. In addition, 76,020 unaccompanied children were detained at the U.S. border. UU., An unprecedented record, including the wave of unaccompanied children of 2014.
“These are numbers that no immigration system in the world can handle, even in this country. And every month during the fiscal year, the numbers increased. You saw them. We all saw them, ”said Morgan.
On a single day in May, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) had almost 20,000 people in custody, five times its capacity, he said.
In May, the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security found “rooms with only standing conditions” in a border patrol processing facility in El Paso, Texas, which had a maximum capacity of 125 migrants. On May 7 and 8, records indicated that there were "approximately 750 and 900 detainees, respectively," according to the report.
“(Customs and Border Protection) was struggling to maintain hygienic conditions in detention cells. With limited access to showers and clean clothes, detainees wore dirty clothes for days or weeks, ”the report said.
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Personnel problems, which has been an ongoing struggle within the ranks of the Border Patrol, were also exacerbated in the midst of the increase in migrants, forcing the agency to redirect agents and officers to the southern border to help .
The hiring exceeded desertion last year, but has not yet met the aggressive goals set by President Donald Trump in his first weeks in office. In January 2017, Trump issued an executive order requesting the hiring and assignment of an additional 5,000 Border Patrol agents "as soon as possible." The agency increased the number of CBP officers by 1,034 for a total of 24,511, and added 93 Border Patrol agents, for a total of 19,648.
Morgan acknowledged that the number of arrests at the border has decreased, but maintained that the situation at the border is still in crisis. In September, the Border Patrol arrested 40,507 migrants on the U.S.-Mexico border, a significant drop of nearly 133,000 arrests in May, according to agency data.
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The administration has accredited a series of recent policies aimed at curbing the flow of migrants for descent. Morgan cited those policies, as well as agreements with Central American countries that could, in part, limit who is eligible for asylum in the United States.
However, it is not clear whether the fall in arrests will continue in the coming months when temperatures drop and migrant flows usually increase again.