Migrant arrests by US authorities at the southern border rose for the third consecutive month, with more than 210,000 arrests in the month of September.
According to data published this Saturday by Customs and Border Control (CBP), in the fiscal year 2023 (which runs from October 2022 to September 2023), a total of 2.045 million people were arrested by the authorities at the border. along with Mexico.
With this figure, 2023 became the second year with the highest number of arrests at the southern border since 1925, surpassed only by 2022, where authorities detained 2.2 million people.
CBP Acting Commissioner Troy Miller noted in a statement that his agency “increased resources and personnel” in September in response to the “high rate of arrests at the southwest border.”
The official also stressed that CBP is working with allies inside and outside the US to address what he described as a “historic migration” to the continent.
And the increase in the number of people arrested by immigration authorities in the month of September is due in part to an increase in the number of Venezuelans arriving at the southern border of the United States.
In September, CBP detained 54,833 Venezuelans, an increase of 148% compared to August and the highest number of arrests of people of this nationality in the last 12 months.
Second only to people from Venezuela, CBP detained 39,733 Mexican nationals in September, followed by Guatemalans, with 33,669 arrests, and Hondurans, with 23,505.
In addition to the arrests, CBP also released numbers for its CBP One program, where people who want to apply for asylum can request an appointment on a mobile application.
Last month, about 43,000 people showed up at US border ports of entry thanks to the application. In total, between January and September of this year, about 278,000 individuals were able to request their appointments at CBP One, according to government data.
The figures for border arrests were released more than two weeks after the US announced the resumption of deportation flights of migrants to Venezuela, after years of freezing the practice, as a measure to prevent migration.
At the same time, they show that the restrictions imposed in May by the Biden administration have failed to stop immigration.
The Venezuelan crisis, in particular, is already the biggest crisis in the world, with more than 7.7 million migrants and refugees in Venezuela, according to UN data.
