The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that apprehensions of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border decreased dramatically in June, a sign that the months-long surge of Central American families journeying north is stalling.
Last month, U.S. authorities turned back or apprehended more than 104,000 migrants in between ports of entry along the southern border — a precipitous 28% drop from May, when more than 140,000 people, including about 84,000 families and 11,000 unaccompanied minors, were apprehended or turned back. The total number of apprehensions that month was a 13-year high.
Although the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees the border officials who apprehend migrants who cross into the country illegally, did not give a break down of the numbers by categories of migrants, the agency said there was a decrease in apprehensions of all groups, including families, unaccompanied children and single adults.
DHS nevertheless said the agency’s resources near the border are still stretched thin and continued to urge Congress to overhaul the nation’s asylum system — which the administration and most Republicans see as a magnet for people in countries in Central America plagued by poverty, violence and political instability.
“We are past the breaking point and in a full-blown emergency. This situation should not be acceptable to any of us,” the department said in a statement.
Although apprehensions have in previous years decreased significantly in the summer months because of the sweltering heat in Central America and Mexico, DHS touted the agency’s expansion of the controversial “Remain in Mexico” policy that forces certain asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their cases are adjudicated in the U.S., as well as the Mexican government’s efforts to bolster enforcement at the Mexico-Guatemala border. Both actions were provisions Mexico agreed to in a deal last month to ensure President Trump did not carry out his threat of imposing tariffs on Mexican goods.
“These initiatives are making an impact,” DHS said in its statement.