The administration of President Joe Biden has insisted that its carrot-and-stick strategy, which expands legal routes into the country and imposes more punitive measures on those who enter illegally, is working. He noted that illegal crossings were still 27% lower than they were in July 2022, and well below the days before the new immigration rules.
The increase from June to July was fueled by a greater presence of families traveling with children, which nearly doubled to 60,161 arrests. Arizona became much more crowded despite the heat in its remote deserts, a change authorities say was due to false advertising by smugglers that it was easier to cross there and be released into the United States.
“We remain vigilant and continue to adjust our operational plans to maximize enforcement efforts against individuals who do not use legal avenues or process, knowing that smugglers continue to use misinformation to take advantage of vulnerable individuals,” said Acting Customs Commissioner Troy Miller. and US Border Protection.
Border Patrol made 132,652 migrant apprehensions in July along the southern border, up from 99,545 apprehensions in June but down from 181,834 times in July 2022. Crossings were widely expected to increase after the Pandemic-related asylum restrictions were due to end May 11, but fell in June to the second lowest in a Biden presidency after new rules make it extremely difficult to obtain asylum for illegal border crossers.
The latest figures also reflect a sharp increase in the use of the government’s CBP One mobile app, with which up to 1,450 migrants can obtain appointments each day at land crossings with Mexico to request asylum. During the month of July, authorities admitted more than 50,000 migrants at official crossings, including more than 44,700 with CBP One appointments.
US authorities also admitted large numbers of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who had financial backers and arrived at an airport. Since the launch of the entry permit for humanitarian reasons for those nationalities last year, more than 72,000 Haitians, 63,000 Venezuelans, 41,000 Cubans and 34,000 Nicaraguans had been admitted as of the end of July. Texas and other Republican-ruled states have challenged the program for those nationalities, and a trial is scheduled for next week in Victoria, Texas.
