Migrants are arriving at US borders from around the world

 

Migrants are arriving at US borders from around the world

Immigrants from countries outside of Central America are increasingly arriving at the country's borders under the Biden administration, specifically to cross the US-Mexico border illegally and risk arrest.

In October 2020, Border Patrol agents nationwide had encountered far more people from the Caribbean, Central Europe, and South America than last year. Although immigrants from Mexico and Central America make up nearly 75% of all illegal immigrants at the northern, southern, and coastal borders, more people are arriving from other countries. Some traveled thousands of miles and across oceans for a chance to reach the United States, primarily by walking across the southern border.

"We see a permanent change in immigration at the US-Mexico border. It is expanding now," said Theresa Cardinal Brown, managing director of immigration and cross-border policy at the Bipartisan Politics Center in Washington. Central America and not from Mexico, which means that now this is just a migration route."

BPC's Grace Klwinder wrote that Border Patrol agents operating along the US border saw a 13,951% increase in the number of Venezuelans detained between June 2020 and June of this year when more than 26,000 Venezuelans have fled political repression and challenging economic conditions.

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 Ecuador is a country of 17 million people located at the northwest tip of South America; US border authorities have encountered more than 54,000 people over the past nine months — five times more than they did at the same point last year.

To the south in central South America, the Brazilians are also leaving. Nearly 30,000 Brazilians were encountered at the border, compared to less than 9,000 the year before. Last June, only 80 Brazilians were arrested. The 6,678 Brazilians seen the previous month represented an increase of 8,248%. The coronavirus pandemic has hit Brazil more often this year than last, leading to internal crises from which citizens are trying to escape.

Cuban concerns have increased from 14,000 as of June 2020 to more than 26,000 in the past month. Immigration from Haiti rose to 2906% in the same period.

More than 34,000 people from the Philippines and 4,369 Romanians were stopped at the border. The category of "other" immigrants, whose country of origin cannot be determined, has doubled to more than 37,000 this year.

Brown said that while the change in immigration patterns is evident, the federal government focuses on responding rather than planning. For example, while border guards have responded to a 21-year high in illegal immigration at the border by setting up tents to detain people and release them from custody, they must make plans to deal with it if it persists or worsens.

Brown said the Biden administration's focus on resolving the "push" factors that drive people from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras to immigrate to the United States also needs to change to include the factors that drive people from other countries to come. Otherwise, migration from Central America will decrease, but global migration to the United States will continue to rise.

What about Nicaragua? What about Brazil and Venezuela? What about Haiti? What about Ukraine and Romania? and Congo. What are the root causes there? How will you manage that? Brown said.

Border Patrol's "enforcement mindset" does not consider how human migration differs from the smuggling of drugs, firearms, money, and other items.

"They put it all together and say we have to secure the boundaries of all of that when the motives, the rationale, and the people you're dealing with are completely different," Brown said. "We don't control when people arrive. And that has to be a balance of treating people humanely while enforcing the rules."

Brown said the reactive approach of detaining people before they are repatriated or allowed to live in the United States could be replaced by a proactive approach.

Laura Reese, a senior fellow in Homeland Security at the Conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington, said the US government should take an individual approach by looking at why everyone is fleeing rather than the situations in countries as a whole.