In April 2024, a group of people sought asylum and awaited processing across the Mexico-U.S. border near Yakuba, California.
Gregory Bull/AP
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Gregory Bull/AP
In April 2024, a group of people sought asylum and awaited processing across the Mexico-U.S. border near Yakuba, California.
Gregory Bull/AP
WASHINGTON — Apprehensions of people illegally crossing the U.S. border from Mexico fell by more than 6% in April, the fourth-lowest month of the Biden administration and a reversal of the typical increase in the spring, authorities said Wednesday.
U.S. officials attribute the decline largely to increased enforcement in Mexico, including at stations where migrants are known to board freight trains. Mexico’s Foreign Relations Secretary Alicia Barcena told reporters on Tuesday that Mexico was not allowing more than 4,000 people a day to cross illegally into the United States, down from more than 10,000 people arrested by the Border Patrol on some days in December. dropped.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said there were 128,884 immigration apprehensions in April, down from 137,480 in March and just half of the all-time high of 249,737 in December. While still historically high, arrests have dropped sharply since late December, good news for President Joe Biden as the issue has dogged him in polls during an election year.
For the first time since the 1990s, San Diego became the busiest of the Border Patrol’s nine sectors along the Mexican border with 37,370 people, replacing Tucson, Arizona.
Customs and Border Protection Acting Commissioner Troy Miller said increased enforcement, including deportations, and cooperation with other countries have led to the decrease.
“As a result of increased enforcement, there has been no increase in encounters at the southwest border, contrary to previous trends. We will remain vigilant to changing immigration patterns,” he said.
In April, authorities allowed 41,400 people to enter through Mexico’s land border crossings through an online booking app called CBP One, bringing the total to more than 591,000 since its launch in January 2023.
The United States is also allowing up to 30,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans to enter the country if they apply online with a financial sponsor and arrive on commercial flights. As of April, some 435,000 people had entered the country, including 91,000 Cubans, 166,700 Haitians, 75,700 Nicaraguans and 101,200 Venezuelans.
