USA: More immigrant activity on southern border 0:42
(CNN) — U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) encounters with migrants along the border with Mexico have already surpassed 2 million this fiscal year, according to recently released agency data, and migration from countries like Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba is increasing.
In August, the number of encounters with migrants along the US southern border rose to 203,598, data shows. Of these, 22% were people who crossed the border more than once.
The Biden administration continues to enforce an emergency pandemic restriction known as Title 42 along the border, which allows border officials to turn migrants away, but there are restrictions based on nationality. Cold relations with countries like Cuba and Venezuela also prevent the US from removing people.
Migrants stand in line while waiting to be processed by U.S. Border Patrol after illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in the early hours of July 11, 2022 in Yuma, Arizona. (Photo by ALLISON DINNER/ AFP via Getty Images)
Last month, 55,333 migrants found at the border came from Venezuela, Cuba or Nicaragua, a 175% increase since last August.
“Failed communist regimes in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba are fueling a new wave of migration across the Western Hemisphere, including the recent surge in encounters at the United States’ southwestern border,” CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus said in a statement.
Republican governors have criticized the Biden administration for the influx of immigrants and have focused on its handling of the US-Mexico border and driving immigrants out of their states, in what Democrats have called political chicanery.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, government officials admitted that increasing migration poses a challenge. Asked if the administration was considering bringing migrants inland, one official cited ongoing discussion about how to improve processing along the border.
“One solution that we know is not a good solution is for hostile governors to bus or plane migrants to places they had no intention of going without any coordination,” he said Officer.
The Biden administration, officials argued, is focused on increasing aid to Western Hemisphere countries hosting Venezuelan migrants, including Colombia, Ecuador and Costa Rica, and expanding refugee resettlement to those displaced in the region.
In addition to these efforts, the administration announces that it will suspend asylum procedures so that cases can be heard more quickly.
The government has also redoubled its efforts to dismantle people smuggling networks, beefing up more than 1,300 troops in Latin America and around the US border and allocating $50 million to the effort. The government reports that nearly 5,000 arrests have been made across the United States and across the region as part of this effort.