U.S. Customs and Border Protection report that encounters at the Southwest border with Mexico have fallen to their traditional levels below the high rates seen in 2019, according to The Hill.
CBP found that illegal border crossings dropped by 53% in 2020, from 977,509 last year to 458,088 in this fiscal year, according to statistics released by Acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan and Deputy Commissioner Robert Perez on Wednesday.
The Wall Street Journal notes that this marks a return to the levels seen during former President Barack Obama’s administration. The newspaper also notes that the Trump administration enacted a policy last March allowing border agents to turn back migrants who are caught crossing the border illegally, rather than apprehending, detaining and deporting them due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“The move was intended to keep migrants out of border-detention centers, where COVID-19 could quickly spread, and allowed the government to deny migrants a chance to ask for humanitarian protection,” the Journal states.
However, the newspaper adds that “the policy has also had an unintended result: Because migrants face no formal consequences for attempting to cross the border, many more are making repeat attempts.”
The CBP data shows that many more single adults are attempting to cross into the U.S. illegally, as opposed to families from Central America, which was the previous main demographic.
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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