WASHINGTON.- Immigration detentions at the US southern border increased by 33% in July compared to the previous month, with more than 132,000 arrests, a high-ranking official from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported this Friday.
The Government attributes this increase to a “seasonal” trend and insists that the measures implemented by the Joe Biden government to control border migration have been “effective”.
This is the first increase in arrests on the US border with Mexico since Title 42 was lifted in May, a sanitary regulation by which the US authorities were expeditiously expelling migrants under the pretext of the pandemic.
“The border is not open and, like every year, we see different changes in the flow of migrants arriving at the border,” the official stressed in a call with journalists.
Specifically, 132,652 people were arrested when trying to cross the border with Mexico irregularly, according to the data provided by the official.
A good part of these arrests, just under half, were of family groups, which corresponded to 60,455 arrests during July, according to data published on the website of the Office of Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
On the other hand, the official reported that more than 44,000 migrants were able to appear at ports of entry through appointments requested in the CBP One application, promoted by the Government as the main legal way to request asylum at the border.
Only eight of the 47 ports of entry on the southern border, which stretches for 3,141 kilometers, attend appointments booked through the application, the operation of which has been harshly criticized by human rights organizations, who consider it a way of restricting access. to the asylum.
The new rules, imposed by the Biden Administration last May, make it difficult for those who have come by land to the border with Mexico to apply for asylum in the US, unless they request an appointment on the mobile application or have been denied. protection in a third country.
In the last ten months, more than 181,000 Cubans, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans and Haitians have entered the US under the humanitarian permit program, which allows people of these nationalities to legally work in the country for two years.
Specifically, some 63,000 Venezuelans, 41,000 Cubans, 34,000 Haitians and 27,000 Nicaraguans now live in the US under this program, explained the official, who did not specify how many applications for this permit his government has received in total.
The humanitarian parole program was initially announced only for Venezuelans in October 2022 and was later expanded to include the other three nationalities.
