Preliminary data from Customs and Border Protection obtained by Axios indicates the number of illegal aliens coming into the United States from Mexico is the highest since 2006, with four months remaining in the fiscal year.
Since Oct. 1, 2020, nearly 1 million migrants have been apprehended by CBP. Last month alone, 170,000 people were captured, marking a 20-year high. While the majority of migrants are coming in from Mexico (40 percent), others have flooded in from Ecuador, Venezuela, Cuba, and Haiti, as well as the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.
This is the third consecutive month CBP has recorded more than 170,000 border-crossings, which has not occurred since 2000. About 6,000 migrants were apprehended daily at the border in April, while March saw about 5,560 each day.
“In just five sectors, more than 32,000 Ecuadorians have been encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border this fiscal year,” Axios noted. “About 13,000 Brazilians have been stopped in the Yuma, Arizona, sector alone, on top of about 7,000 in two other sectors, according to the data. There were fewer than 40,000 migrants not from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, or El Salvador encountered by border officials for the entire fiscal year of 2018.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, whom President Joe Biden appointed to head up the administration’s border crisis response, has yet to travel to the southern border amid the surge and thousands of children being held in facilities. In an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt this week, Harris laughed off the idea.
After the vice president claimed the administration had “been to the border,” Holt pressed her. “You haven’t been to the border,” he noted.
“I haven’t been to Europe,” Harris said. “And I don’t understand the point that you’re making. I’m not discounting the importance of the border.”
Harris is visiting Guatemala this week, which she has claimed will provide an idea of the “root causes” of the crisis. Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei slammed Harris in an interview that aired Sunday, noting, “We asked the United States government to send more of a clear message to prevent more people from leaving.”
