US: 188,800 migrants cross the border in June 0:58
(CNN) -
U.S. border authorities detained or turned away the largest monthly number of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in at least a decade in June, according to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official. familiar with the figures and previously published data.
Some 188,800 migrants were intercepted in June, up from 180,034 in May, bringing the fiscal year total so far to more than one million Customs and Border Protection (CBP) arrests. for its acronym in English).
That is more than in recent years, including 2019, which was described as a "humanitarian catastrophe" as the number of families and unaccompanied minors who arrived at the border skyrocketed.
Last year, fewer immigrants entered the U.S. as the coronavirus pandemic swept across the world and isolation measures were imposed.
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The number of migrants intercepted at the US-Mexico border has been on the rise since May 2020, when CBP found about 23,000 people.
This June was the highest monthly figure since President Joe Biden took office.
The monthly data is used as a measure of illegal migration to the United States.
However, in March 2020 a public health measure was implemented in the country that allowed the rapid expulsion of migrants at the border, impacting the number of repeat crossings.
The Biden administration has upheld the Trump-era health order, known as "Title 42," amid ongoing litigation and a torrent of criticism from immigration advocates and some lawmakers.
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In June, 34% of the arrests were of migrants who had had at least one previous arrest in the last year.
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Weeks after Biden took office, the number of unaccompanied minors arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border began to skyrocket, overwhelming federal government resources and sparking a struggle to find enough space in shelters to house them. .
In the months that followed, the administration was able to reduce the time minors spent in Border Patrol jail-type facilities, which had reached 133 hours in March, well above the legal limit of 72 hours.
At the end of June, the average time in Customs and Border Protection custody dropped to 28 hours, according to a DHS source familiar with the matter.
CNN reported, in late June, that more than a million immigrants had been detained since last October after illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, according to two DHS officials, beating the count for the border crisis in 2019, three months after the close of the fiscal year.
The influx of unaccompanied migrant minors on the southern border of the United States decreases, according to authorities
In March, the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, estimated that the US was "on track to find more individuals on the southwestern border than in the last 20 years."
Most of the arrests in June were of single adults, but families and unaccompanied minors increased from the previous month.
The Customs and Border Protection Office intercepted some 55,805 family members and 15,253 unaccompanied minors in June, up from 44,639 and 14,158 in May, respectively.
The border agency does not comment on the data until it is publicly released, which usually occurs around the first week of the month.
- CNN's Priscilla Álvarez contributed to this report.
Mexico-U.S. Border Illegal immigration United States
