Illegal border crossings from Mexico to U.S. hit annual high

Immigrants from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua surged in September, bringing the number of people crossing the border illegally into the U.S. to the highest level in a fiscal year.

Year-end data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection reflects deteriorating economic and political conditions in some countries, the relative strength of the U.S. economy and uneven enforcement of Trump-era asylum restrictions.

Migrants were stopped 227,547 times at the U.S. border with Mexico in September, the third-highest month in Joe Biden’s presidency. It was up 11.5% from 204,087 in August and 18.5% from 192,001 in September 2021.

Migrants were stopped 2.38 million times in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, up 37 percent from 1.73 million the year before, according to data released late Friday.

The annual total surpassed 2 million for the first time in August, more than double the peak of Donald Trump’s 2019 presidency.

Nearly 78,000 migrants from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua were intercepted in September, while about 58,000 migrants from Mexico and three countries in northern Central America made up the historical majority.

The dramatic geographic shift is at least partly the result of Section 42, a public health rule that suspends the right to seek asylum under U.S. and international law on the grounds of preventing the spread of Covid-19.

The U.S. cannot deport migrants to Venezuela, Cuba or Nicaragua due to strained diplomatic relations. As a result, most of them were released to the United States to pursue their immigration cases.

It has been applied 2.4 million times since the Article 42 mandate began in March 2020, but has disproportionately affected migrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.