More and more Venezuelans seek to cross the US border 3:00
(CNN) -
More than a million migrants have been detained after illegally crossing the border between Mexico and the United States since last October, according to two officials from the United States Department of Homeland Security, surpassing the number of the border crisis of 2019 when there are still three months of the fiscal year left.
The Biden administration has braced for a high number of arrests along the southern border of the United States since the beginning of this year.
In March, the Secretary of National Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, estimated that the country "is on track to find more individuals on the southwestern border than in the last 20 years."
Harris's balance after visiting the US-Mexico border 4:02
Federal border authorities have yet to release their June arrest figures, but have said that the findings for the fiscal year have already reached one million, taking this month into account.
Although the number of arrests at the border remains high, many of those detained are repeat offenders crossing the border as a result of a policy related to the pandemic.
They find in Mexico an unaccompanied minor for two years who traveled crowded with migrants
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) declined to comment on the preliminary data until official monthly figures are released.
The one million figure was first reported by Reuters.
The Biden administration has continued to rely on Title 42 of the Public Health Act, which was implemented last year and which allows border authorities to quickly return immigrants detained at the border.
Unaccompanied minors are not subject to this policy.
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In June, more than 6,300 people on average crossed the border each day, according to one official, citing the average of 21 days.
Mayorkas defended the administration's deportations at the border, saying it is a matter of public health policy.
"We will suspend it as soon as the facts and the public health data require it," he told CNN en Español on Monday.
Illegal immigration United States
