Border arrests drop 28%
WASHINGTON — The number of people taken into custody along the U.S. southern border fell 28 percent in June, a drop that U.S. authorities say reflects the impact of Mexico’s crackdown on Central American migration.
Border crossings rise in the spring and slump during the scorching summer months, but the drop registered from May to June was larger than in previous years, according to Homeland Security statistics released Tuesday. U.S. authorities detained 104,344 last month, down from 144,278 in May.
June was the fourth month in a row that border arrests exceeded 100,000, and the total was more than twice the 43,180 taken into custody in June 2018 and a nearly fivefold increase over June 2017, when authorities detained 21,673.
President Donald Trump has treated the monthly U.S. Customs and Border Protection arrest totals like a stock index for the success of his immigration policies, periodically erupting in fury at Homeland Security officials as the numbers soared to a 13-year high.
In late May, with holding cells along the border overflowing and Central American migrants streaming across in groups of as large as 1,000, Trump forced emergency negotiations with Mexico by threatening to impose potentially crippling tariffs — a political gambit aimed at shifting responsibility for the border crisis to a foreign government.
The move spurred immediate action: Leftist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s administration convinced Trump to delay the economic penalty by promising that Mexico would dramatically increase enforcement efforts and work with the United States to overhaul regional asylum policies.
Mexico has since deployed thousands of national guard troops to patrol its borders and interdict migrants traveling along railways and roads, at times grabbing families just steps from U.S. soil along the banks of the Rio Grande. Mexico said it has increased deportations 33 percent since the deal.
“The reduction in apprehensions accounts for decreases across all demographics, including unaccompanied minors, family units and single adults, as well as decreases in migrants from all Northern Triangle countries, particularly those coming from Guatemala,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.
The number of “family unit” members taken into custody dropped 32 percent in June, DHS figures show, and the number of children arriving without a parent fell 36 percent.