Border arrest numbers for August have shown a slight uptick from the previous month, disrupting a streak of month-to-month declines, yet they remain close to the lowest figures in four years. The information, shared under condition of anonymity by two U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials, points to about 54,000 arrests made through late August, indicating an estimate that might reach roughly 58,000 by month's end, as ABC15 reports.
In a broader context, these numbers signify a potential leveling off after figures were cut in half from a high of 250,000 last December, a decrease largely credited to increased enforcement by Mexican authorities, while the recent drop corresponds with President Joe Biden's temporary suspension of asylum processing in June, that resulted in July's nearly four-year low arrest count of 56,408, not shifting substantially in August. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, in a statement obtained by AP News, urged Congress to back legislation aiming to overhaul the asylum process and proposed adding more Border Patrol agents, though it was met with opposition from Republicans like presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Despite fluctuating numbers, Mayorkas highlighted the strides made under the current administration, saying, “Thanks to action taken by the Biden-Harris Administration, the hard work of our DHS personnel and our partnerships with other countries in the region and around the world, we continue to see the lowest number of encounters at our Southwest border since September 2020.” This assertion comes at a critical juncture as Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrats' White House nominee, along with the White House face mixed reception; with criticisms arising from both immigration advocates viewing the asylum curbs as excessive, and proponents of stronger enforcement deeming new legal pathways to entry as overly lenient.
Concurrently, there's been an influx of legal entries, with more than 765,000 people admitted to the United States via the CBP One online appointment app by the end of July, and an additional 520,000 from countries including Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela were allowed through airports with the aid of financial sponsors, although this offer was momentarily halted in July due to fraud concerns. San Diego led the border sectors with the highest arrest rates in August, closely followed by El Paso, Texas, and Tucson, Arizona. yet, a decline was observed among Colombians and Ecuadoreans corresponding with deportation flights to those countries, as per officials cited by ABC15.
