Social Issues

US migrant detentions hit record annual high

Washington, Oct 24 (EFE).- The 2022 fiscal year closed with a record high number of 2,766,582 apprehensions of undocumented immigrants, 85% of which were on the southern border, according to US Customs and Border Protection.

The surge sees a substantial increase in the number of detentions of Venezuelan migrants, which went from 5,279 in May, to 17,811 in July, and finally 33,961 in September — the last month of the fiscal year.

On the southwest border with Mexico, which runs from Texas to California, there were 2,378,944 detentions, a number 37.1% higher than the previous year.

The annual total includes people who were stopped at the border more than once.

“Failing communist regimes in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba are driving a new wave of migration across the Western Hemisphere, including the recent increase in encounters at the southwest U.S. border,” said CBP commissioner Chris Magnus in an official statement.

The largest part of apprehensions were of adults traveling alone with a total number of 1,993,694, a jump by 50% from the year before.

There was also a rise in the detention of families, from 483,846 in 2021 to 614,023 in this last year.

The number of detained unaccompanied migrant minors was 152,880, a figure almost equal to that of the previous fiscal period. EFE

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