The number of migrant arrivals reported along the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal year 2022 surpassed 2 million in August, an all-time high driven in part by unprecedented levels of migration from Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, according to government data published Monday.
Migrant encounters along the U.S. southern border rose slightly to 203,598 last month, reversing a downward trend recorded in the previous two months, the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data show.
The number included 181,160 Border Patrol apprehensions of migrants who entered the U.S. illegally, virtually the same level as in July, as well as 22,437 migrants and asylum-seekers processed at official ports of entry, a slight increase from the previous month.
With one month left, CBP officials stationed along the Mexican border have processed migrants over 2.1 million times in fiscal year 2022, a tally well above the previous record set in fiscal year 2021, when the agency recorded 1.7 million migrant encounters.
One million of the encounters recorded by CBP this fiscal year, however, have resulted in migrants being rapidly expelled to northern Mexico or their home country under Title 42, a coronavirus-era order that blocks access to the U.S. asylum system, the CBP statistics show.
The unprecedented encounters tally has also been inflated by a significant number of migrants trying to enter the U.S. multiple times — and being counted multiple times — after their expulsion to Mexico under Title 42, which does not carry criminal or immigration penalties, unlike traditional deportations.
In August, almost a quarter of all migrant encounters involved individuals who had been previously apprehended by U.S. border authorities in the past year, CBP said Monday.
One of the main factors fueling the high levels of migrant apprehensions over the past year under President Biden is the arrival of tens of thousands of migrants from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua, who have journeyed to the U.S. border in record number in recent months.
In August, migrants from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua made up over one-third of all border apprehensions. Their arrival is part of a broader, unprecedented increase in migration from outside Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, whose citizens accounted for the vast majority of migrants processed by U.S. border officials before the COVID-19 pandemic.
More than 25,000 Venezuelans entered U.S. border custody in August, a monthly record, making Venezuela the second-largest source of migrants to the southern border, behind Mexico.
Nearly 7 million Venezuelans have fled their homeland as part of the largest displacement crisis in the Western Hemisphere, according to the United Nations. While many settled in other South American nations like Colombia, Venezuelans hoping to reach the U.S. have been crossing the Darien Gap, Panama’s roadless jungle, in record numbers over the past month, Panamanian government data show.