EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – San Diego and El Paso led the nation in migrant apprehensions between ports of entry in September, with Tucson not far behind.
And while migrants from all over the world are the ones primarily coming across the border without authorization into California, overwhelming numbers of Mexican nationals are entering through Tucson and El Paso.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection data shows border agents apprehended 13,309 migrants in the San Diego Sector in September, followed by El Paso with 12,507 and Tucson with 11,055. Most encounters involved single adults, especially in El Paso, where only 1,327 detainees came across the border with one or more family members.
Agents in the El Paso Sector detained 8,231 Mexicans in September from Hudspeth County, Texas, to the New Mexico-Arizona state line. Of the remaining 4,276 apprehensions, fewer than 1,400 were from countries outside the Northern Triangle of Central America.
Overall, illegal crossings into the Southwestern United States are down since a Mexican crackdown on migrants riding trains to the U.S. border in late May and the White House issuing an executive order June 4 restricting asylum petitions between ports of entry.
“During Fiscal Year 2024, CBP significantly increased its enforcement efforts and realized a substantial decrease in southwest border encounters,” said CBP Acting Commissioner Troy A. Miller. “CBP continued to identify and respond to new threats posed by the transnational criminal organizations profiting from the exploitation of vulnerable people, taking unprecedented measures to dismantle and disrupt these operations.”
But at least three migrant caravans have set off this month from southern Mexico aiming to cross into the U.S. before a new president takes office in January. And traffic along the Darien Gap – a favorite route for migrants from South America headed north – rose sharply in September after falling for several months.
Data from the Panamanian government shows a 51 percent increase from August to September, according to the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA).
“There have been sharp increases before in the 45 months since 2021. This marks the tenth-largest monthly increase,” Adam Isacson, director for defense oversight, said in last week’s WOLA podcast on X.
He said analysts had been predicting another exodus in Venezuela following allegedly rigged elections in July and, “Now, here it is.” More than half a million migrants crossed the Darien Gap in 2023 and another 260,000 have come across in the first nine months of 2024, according to WOLA.
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