BORDER ARRESTS HIT RECORD HIGH IN MAY

Immigration arrests along the U.S. southern border rose in May to the highest levels ever recorded, as growing numbers of migrants arrived from Turkey, India, Russia and other nations outside the Western Hemisphere, the latest U.S. Customs and Border Protection figures show.

CBP made 239,416 arrests along the Mexico border last month, a 2 percent increase from April, according to the totals. The agency is on pace to exceed 2 million detentions during fiscal 2022, which ends in September, after tallying a record 1.73 million in 2021.

May is typically a busy month for illegal border crossings, but the latest figures indicate a diversifying migration wave that presents a significant logistical and political challenge for the Biden administration.

Many migrants seeking to reach the United States first fly to Mexico. Last month, the number of border crossers from India arrested by CBP jumped to 2,438, up 55 percent from April, the latest figures show. Authorities encountered 2,310 border crossers from Turkey, up 51 percent. The number of Russians increased 102 percent, to 3,394.

In a statement released late Wednesday, CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus warned migrants of the dangers posed by illegal crossings.

“As temperatures start to rise in the summer, human smugglers will continue to exploit vulnerable populations and recklessly endanger the lives of migrants for financial gain,” he said. “The terrain along the Southwest Border is extreme, the summer heat is severe, and the miles of desert that migrants must hike after crossing the border are unforgiving.”

Many of the migrants arriving from outside the Western Hemisphere are not sneaking through the desert, however. After landing in Mexico and traveling to the U.S. border, they typically cross the Rio Grande or walk through gaps in the U.S. barriers, then surrender to U.S. agents and request humanitarian protection, adding to a court backlog of about 400,000 pending asylum cases.

CBP figures show border crossers from Mexico, Central America, Cuba and Haiti also continued to arrive in high numbers in May. Authorities detained 19,040 migrants from Colombia, up 45 percent from April, an ally nation the Biden administration describes as one of its most important partners for a regional approach to migration management.

For comparison, authorities detained just 408 Colombians during the same period a year ago, in May 2021.

Of the 239,416 arrests, 222,656 were made by the Border Patrol between official ports of entry, topping the 220,063 arrests recorded in March 2000 that were the previous all-time high, statistics show.