Number of migrants taken into custody soars

The number of migrants taken into custody along the Mexico border soared in October to the highest totals of the Trump presidency, according to figures released late Friday by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The jump in illegal crossings continued to be driven by record numbers of parents arriving with children, a trend that has accelerated dramatically since the Trump administration halted its “zero tolerance” family separation policy in June.

Border Patrol agents last month arrested 23,121 migrant family members, a 39 percent jump from September and the highest onemonth total ever recorded. In total, CBP arrested or deemed inadmissible 60,745 people along the Mexico border in October, far more than any other month since Trump took office.

Homeland Security officials did not comment Friday on the October figures. Trump in the past has viewed the numbers as a gauge for the performance of his border security officials and especially Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who is not expected to remain much longer in her role.

With Trump arriving Friday in France, it was not clear if the president had seen the October border figures showing yet another surge in illegal crossings.

DHS officials blame the surge on what they say is a flood of frivolous asylum claims by Central Americans attempting to avoid deportation by gaming the U.S. immigration system. Trump on Friday issued a presidential proclamation that imposes new restrictions on asylum protections for migrants who cross the border illegally, invoking the same executive authority cited under his “travel ban” last year.

A coalition of civil rights groups led by the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Friday in San Francisco seeking an injunction to block the measures, calling them a violation of federal procedure and a violation of immigration laws.

October’s surge in border arrests was driven, once more, by large numbers of Guatemalan and Honduran migrants, many fleeing rampant violence and poverty.

Up to 10,000 Central Americans are traveling toward the U.S. border in loose caravans of unprecedented size, and the October arrest totals do not include members of those groups.

They will arrive at a border where more than 7,000 U.S. soldiers have been ordered to deploy in an attempt to deter crossings.

U.S. courts limit the government’s ability to hold children in immigration jails, and with family-appropriate detention capacity already maxed out, the government has been processing and releasing large numbers of migrants in Arizona and California.