SAN DIEGO — Venezuelans became the largest nationality arrested for illegally crossing the U.S. border, replacing Mexicans for the first time on record, according to figures released Saturday that show September was the second-highest month for arrests of all nationalities.
Venezuelans were arrested 54,833 times by the Border Patrol after entering from Mexico in September, more than double from 22,090 arrests in August and well above the previous monthly high of 33,749 arrests in September 2022.
Arrests of all nationalities entering from Mexico totaled 218,763 in September, up 21% from 181,084 in August and approaching an all-time high of 222,018 in December 2022, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Arrests for the government's budget year that ended Sept. 30 topped 2 million for the second year in a row, down 7% from an all-time high of more than 2.2 million arrests in the same period a year earlier.
People are also reading…
Migrants from Venezuela wait Oct. 16 at a Migrant Temporal Attention Center in Paso Canoas, Costa Rica, for transportation to continue on their way north to Nicaragua and toward the Mexico-United States border.
Venezuela plunged into a political, economic and humanitarian crisis over the last decade, pushing more than 7 million people to leave. They initially settled in nearby countries in Latin America but began coming to the United States in the last three years, settling in New York, Chicago and other major cities.
The Biden administration recently announced temporary legal status for nearly 500,000 Venezuelans who were already in the United States on July 31, while vowing to deport those who come illegally after that date and fail to get asylum. It recently began deportation flights to Venezuela as part of a diplomatic thaw with the government of Nicolás Maduro, a longtime adversary.
The U.S. "surged resources and personnel" to the border in September, said Troy Miller, acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection.
"We are continually engaging with domestic and foreign partners to address historic hemispheric migration, including large migrant groups traveling on freight trains, and to enforce consequences including by preparing for direct repatriations to Venezuela," Miller said.
FILE - President Joe Biden, second from left, looks towards a large "Welcome to Mexico" sign that is hung over the Bridge of the Americas as he tours the El Paso port of entry, a busy port of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border, in El Paso Texas, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
For decades, Mexicans accounted for the vast majority of illegal crossings but flows shifted over the last decade to Central Americans and, more recently, to people from South America, Africa and Asia.
Mexicans were arrested 39,733 times crossing the border in September, well behind Venezuelans. Guatemalans, Hondurans and Colombians rounded out the top five.
Republicans seized on the latest numbers as its leading presidential candidates have tried to frame the border as a major issue in next year's elections.
"This fiscal year may have ended, but the historic crisis at our Southwest border sparked by (Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro) Mayorkas' policies rages on," said Rep. Mark Green of Tennessee, chair of the House Homeland Security Committee.
The Biden administration proposed about $14 billion for the border in a $106 billion spending package announced Friday and insisted any long-term solution requires help from Congress.
Americas reeling as flow of migrants reaches historic levels
A migrant who crossed into the U.S. from Mexico is pulled under concertina wire along the Rio Grande river Sept. 21, 2023, in Eagle Pass, Texas. Countries in the Americas are reeling as the flow of migrants reaches historic levels, but international “funds simply aren’t there” for humanitarian needs. Global crises — among them the war in Ukraine, conflict in Sudan, Morocco’s earthquake — have pulled global funds away, said Ugochi Daniels, deputy director of operations for the International Organization for Migration.
Migrants who crossed the Rio Grande river to the U.S. from Mexico seek direction from a guardsman Sept. 22, 2023, in Eagle Pass, Texas. A growing number of countries like Panama and Costa Rica are pleading for international aid in handling the flood of migrants passing through the Americas.
Migrants who crossed the Rio Grande and entered the U.S. from Mexico head to be processed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection Sept. 23, 2023, in Eagle Pass, Texas. As more than 7.2 million people have fled the South American nation's economic and political turmoil, the mass migration has received pennies on the dollar in aid compared to other global migration crises like Syria's.
A woman carries her child after she and other migrants crossed the Rio Grande and entered the U.S. from Mexico, to be processed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection Sept. 23 in Eagle Pass, Texas.
A young girl watches as she and other migrants who crossed the Rio Grande and entered the U.S. from Mexico are lined up for processing by U.S. Customs and Border Protection Sept. 23, 2023, in Eagle Pass, Texas. An emergency was declared when several thousand migrants crossed into Eagle Pass, Texas, over a few days.
Migrants sit atop a northbound freight train, in Irapuato, Mexico on Sept. 23, 2023.
Migrants sleep outside a train station as they wait for the arrival of a northbound freight train, in Irapuato, Mexico, on Sept. 22, 2023.
Migrants travel on a freight train, arriving in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Sept. 28, 2023. Despite violence from drug cartels and the dangers that come with riding atop the train cars, such freight trains — known collectively as “The Beast” — have long been used by migrants to travel north.
A migrant man watches as a northbound freight train pulls into Irapuato, Mexico, on Sept. 23, 2023.
Guardsmen encourage migrants waiting on a sandbar to turn around as they attempt cross the Rio Grande from Mexico into the U.S. on Sept. 23, 2023, in Eagle Pass, Texas.
A U.S. Border Patrol agent in a vehicle watches a group of asylum-seekers at a camp after they crossed the nearby border with Mexico, on Sept. 26, 2023, near Jacumba Hot Springs, Calif. Migrants continue to arrive to desert campsites along California's border with Mexico, as they await processing.
Migrants walk beside a freight train they rode to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Sept. 28, 2023. So many migrants are climbing aboard trains that Mexico’s largest railway company said it was suspending 60 freight train runs because of safety concerns, citing a series of injuries and deaths.
Migrants travel on a freight train, arriving in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Sept. 28, 2023. A vast smuggling network can now get migrants from Venezuela to central Mexico in as little as just over two weeks, an odyssey that once could take months. Detentions along the U.S.-Mexico border soared 33% from June to July, according to U.S. government figures, reversing a plunge after new asylum restrictions were introduced in May.
Migrants travel on a freight train, arriving in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Sept. 28, 2023.
Migrants walk beside a freight train that brought them to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Sept. 28, 2023.
Migrants travel on a freight train, arriving in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Sept. 28, 2023.
