Migrant families arrive in record numbers
More than 1,800 Central American parents and children crossed the border illegally Monday, the largest number of “family units apprehensions” recorded on a single day by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said Tuesday.
The total included two groups of more than 300 people, both of which arrived to the CBP’s El Paso sector on the same day President Donald Trump held a rally in the city.
Speaking to a business association in Florida, McAleenan said all of the more than 1,800 family members who crossed the border Monday arrived unlawfully, between official ports of entry.
“That’s the highest total we have on record,” said a CBP official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Family groups consisting of at least one parent and one child now account for the majority of those taken into custody by U.S. authorities along the border, a trend driven by large groups of Guatemalan migrants who have been showing up at remote border crossings to seek the nearest U.S. agents.
After surrendering to authorities, the families are driven to Border Patrol stations, where they typically state a fear of deportation and a desire to seek asylum in the United States. In most cases, the families are released after a few days and assigned a court date, often with a monitoring band fitted to parents’ ankles.
Last month, an unprecedented 59 percent of border apprehensions were constituted of migrants traveling in family groups, a trend that has accelerated in recent months, according to the latest CBP data. Apprehensions of migrant family members rose 290 percent through the first four months of the government’s 2019 fiscal year, relative to the same period last year, figures show.
The agency saw a lull in illegal crossings around the holidays, and apprehensions remained low through early January. But since then, border crossings by family groups have surged, leaving U.S. agents overwhelmed and struggling to cope with the needs of children that sometimes arrive sick and in need of emergency medical care.
One child arrived Monday with a 105-degree fever, requiring immediate medical attention, according to CBP officials. In December, two Guatemalan children died after being taken into CBP custody in the El Paso sector.