Record number of families cross US border illegally in August
- At least 91,000 migrants who crossed with their families were arrested
- Prior record: May 2019 under the Trump administration at 84,486 detained
- CBP agents arrested more than 177,000 migrants along the border in August
A Border Patrol agent instructs migrants who had crossed the Rio Grande river into the U.S. in Eagle Pass, Texas, Friday, May 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)
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(NewsNation) — The U.S.-Mexico border has seen an all-time high of illegal migrant family crossings in August, according to multiple reports.
The influx has upended the Biden administration’s efforts to slow migrant crossings at the border, the Washington Post reported.
At least 91,000 migrants who crossed with their families were arrested by the U.S. Border Patrol last month, the report said. This exceeded the one-month record set in May 2019 under the Trump administration at 84,486 migrants detained, USA Today reported.
The report also revealed that the number of families crossing the border surpassed the number of single adults crossing into the U.S. for the first time since the president took office.
In total, CBP agents arrested more than 177,000 migrants along the border in August, which increased from 132,652 in July and 99,539 in June, the Washington Post reported.
USA Today reported that these numbers could change slightly as CBP will release official numbers later this month.
More than 20,000 migrants were in CBP custody at the end of the month, a number not seen since the week leading up to the end of Title 42, Department of Homeland Security sources confirmed to NewsNation.
Most of the sectors along the southern border have been exceeding capacity. The El Paso Sector in Texas leads with 4,551 people in facilities there.
The last time capacity numbers were this high was before Title 42, a COVID-19-era policy allowing border officials to bar migrants from entering the U.S. on public health grounds. The policy ended in May.
In the days immediately following Title 42, though, apprehensions and migrant crossings, as well as the number of people who evaded law enforcement, dropped dramatically.
However, CBP numbers reveal that illegal crossings have spiked again.
Agents in the Tuscon area have told NewsNation they are overwhelmed by this and have trouble patrolling the border because they are busy transporting or processing hundreds of people.