WASHINGTON — Arrests for illegally crossing the border from Mexico fell 33% in July, reaching their lowest level since September 2020, due to the temporary suspension of asylum, authorities said Friday.
Border Patrol made 56,408 arrests last month, down from 83,536 in June, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, its parent agency.
On June 5, asylum applications were suspended at the border as arrests for illegal crossings topped 2,500 per day, though the lack of deportation flights prevented authorities from turning everyone away. U.S. officials say arrests fell 55% after the measure, following a sharp decline earlier this year largely attributed to Mexican authorities stepping up enforcement inside their borders.
“In July, our border security measures strengthened our ability to punish illegal entries,” said Troy Miller, acting CBP Commissioner.
The numbers, which roughly match preliminary estimates, could give Democrats some breathing room on an issue that has dogged them throughout Joe Biden’s presidency.
“The Biden-Harris administration has taken effective action, and Republicans continue to do nothing,” White House spokesman Angelo Fernandez Hernandez said.
More than 38,000 people have been admitted at land border crossings through an online appointment system called CBP One, bringing the total to more than 765,000 since it was introduced in January 2023.
More than 520,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela have been admitted through July under a separate policy that allows nationals from those four countries to apply online with a financial sponsor and arrive at the airport. The permits were recently suspended due to concerns about fraud by sponsors.
“(The Department of Homeland Security) is working to resume processing applications as quickly as possible, with appropriate safeguards,” CBP said in a statement.
CBP announced Friday that it will expand the areas where non-Mexican migrants can request appointments online to seek asylum in the United States on Aug. 23 to much of southern Mexico.
Migrants will be able to make appointments on the CBP One app from the states of Chiapas and Tabasco, expanding the area to northern and central Mexico. Mexicans can apply anywhere in the country.
The measure requested by Mexico could ease pressure on the Mexican government by allowing migrants to wait for their appointments in the south, farther from the U.S. border, and reduce the dangers for people trying to reach the U.S. border to seek asylum.
U.S. Representative Mark Green, Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, criticized the Biden administration’s new expanded legal pathways at the border.
“This administration is orchestrating a massive con game, encouraging otherwise inadmissible aliens to cross through ports of entry rather than between them, creating a facade of enhanced image for the administration, but in reality imposing an increasing burden on our communities,” he said.
