At least 91,000 migrants crossing in a family group were arrested in August, an influx that may return immigration to the spotlight for the 2024 election.
Migrants navigate around concertina wire along the banks of the Rio Grande after crossing from Mexico into the U.S., Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023, in Eagle Pass, Texas. Concertina wire and newly place buoys being used as a floating barrier, are making in more difficult and dangerous to cross the Rio Grande.
Erin Heeter, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, said the Biden administration is trying to slow illegal entries by expanding lawful options and also stiffening penalties. The government ramped up deportation flights carrying families in August, she said, and since May has repatriated more than 17,000 parents and children who recently crossed the border in family groups.
Trump officials eventually reduced family crossings by aggressively expanding the “Remain in Mexico” program, which sent thousands of asylum seekers back across the border to wait, many in squalid conditions, while their claims were adjudicated in U.S. courts. A separate Biden program accepts roughly 30,000 applicants per month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who obtain authorization to live and work in the United States for two years if they have a financial sponsor and clear background checks. The program, known as parole, allows beneficiaries to fly to the United States instead of crossing at the border.Illegal crossings by migrants from the parole-eligible countries have fallen sharply.
But partisan gridlock has intensified - and the demographic makeup of migrants has changed. Officials saw a marked increase in families and unaccompanied minors arriving at the southern border. Some have been targeted by violence in their home countries that could make them eligible for humanitarian programs. But others are relying on promises from smugglers, who tell them families are far less likely to be deported.
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