Number of illegal immigrants arrested at US-Mexico border goes down 73% in May-October
It seems President Donald Trump’s iron policy at the southern borders is paying off and it is becoming evident from the fact that the number of arrestees for illegally crossing over from Mexico into the US has gone down drastically. According to a report in the Washington Examiner, the number of people held for illegally crossing the southern border dropped for the fifth consecutive month in October and the fall is as high as 73% compared to that in May.
While May saw the arrest of 132,000 people, just over 35,000 were apprehended by the Border Patrol officials for entering the US territory in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California between official crossing points in October, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials said on Thursday, November 14.
The figures headed down steadily since May with 94,000 in June; 71,000 in July; 50,000 in August and 40,000 in September.
The report added that the number of arrests went down significantly as Mexico put into action more federal police and military personnel to the American and Guatemalan borders to prevent illegal immigration.
In May, Trump threatened to impose tariffs on imports from Mexico if the latter did not take measures to stop people from passing through its territory from Central American to reach the US. He announced that all goods from Mexico will have a 5% tariff and starting June 10, they will be in place till the Mexican authorities didn’t stop the illegal migrants to use its soil to reach America.
While he said that on May 31, eight days later, he announced again that the US has made a deal with Mexico whereby the latter has agreed to take "strong measures" to stop the flow of illegal immigrants from South and Central America from entering the US. He suspended the idea of imposing the tariffs.
There was an apprehension that the tariff, if imposed, would hurt US badly by leading to loss of 400,000 jobs, as a Texas-based economic research firm predicted. But it is seen now that Trump could achieve the target that he was actually aiming through the threat of tariff.
Mexico puts up strong surveillance to stop flow of illegal immigrants
Mexico deployed almost 15,000 soldiers and National Guard in the north to stop the flow of illegal immigrants across the border into the US, its army chief said in late June. It also manned its southern border with Guatemala to prevent from entering the country.
Checkpoints were also set up along highways in Central Mexico to stem the flow of buses heading north. Those who have no legal documents were arrested and sent back.
Besides, almost 10,000 people applied for asylum last month at various crossing points known to be ports of entry. They did not enter the US illegally and were not held.
Illegal family, non-Mexican immigrants go down
Acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan on Thursday, November 14, also pointed out a change in pattern. He said the majority of people who were arrested for entering the US without permission were adults and not those as part of a family. While this meant that families were not the majority among the illegal immigrants any more, Morgan also said that Mexicans and not Central Americans dominated the illegal immigrants.
“We saw a shift — for the first time in nearly 18 months — Mexico was the country of origin for the majority of apprehensions and inadmissible aliens rather than from the Northern Triangle countries, with single adults surpassing families,” Morgan said.
Those taken into custody by the Border Patrol forces are transferred from the regional stations to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in three days. Even that number came down as the patrolling officials noted an average of 3,500 people in its stations at a time daily in October, compared to nearly 20,000 at one point of time in May, the Examiner cited Morgan as saying.