The United States saw a record 2.4 million migrants stop at its border with Mexico in the fiscal year that ended last month — a surge fueled by asylum seekers from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua amid worsening economic and political conditions in those countries.
US Customs and Border Protection announced Friday that immigrants were stopped 2.38 million times in the fiscal year ending September 30.
September was the third-highest month of border confrontations under President Biden, with officials scoring 227,547 stopping points.
The swell It was an 11.5% increase at border stations from August, and an 18.5% increase from September 2021, customs officials said.
Immigrants from Customs and Border Protection calls The “three failed communist regimes” made up more than a third of the September encounters, bypassing people seeking asylum from Mexico and the Northern Triangle of Central America.
This shift was in part due to Title 42, a COVID-19 precaution that allowed officials to expel immigrants to prevent the virus from spreading. Since the United States has poor diplomatic relations with Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua, they are often allowed into the United States to pursue their immigration cases.
Since October 12, the United States has expelled Venezuelans to Mexico under Title 42, officials said, causing a sharp drop in the number of immigrants from the South American country. The Biden administration said it would allow 24,000 Venezuelans on parole if they had a financial sponsor and traveled to the United States — the same process under which tens of thousands of Ukrainian war refugees were welcomed.
The first four Venezuelans to follow new parole guidelines arrived this weekend, and hundreds of other applicants have been granted approval to travel north, according to homeland security officials.
“While this early data is not reflected in [September] The report confirms what we have said all along: When there is a legal and regulated way to enter the country, individuals will be less likely to put their lives in the hands of smugglers and attempt to cross the border illegally,” said CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus.
As Republicans look to wrest control of the Senate and House of Representatives from Democrats in the upcoming midterm elections, GOP members of the Committee on Homeland Security released a succinct five-word statement in response to record immigration numbers.
“You’ve got to be kidding,” he wrote.
Another grim record was reportedly set in fiscal year 2022: 856 migrants died at the southern border, and 25 died already this month, according to For Fox News.
with wire
