U.S. Faces Immigration Crisis: Detentions Reach Record Level

Official figures indicate that from September 2021 to September 2022, immigration authorities made 2.38 million apprehensions of people attempting to cross the southern border of the United States.

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This number is a record in the Border Patrol's history and represents an increase of 37% compared to last year, when 1.73 million apprehensions were recorded.

Since the beginning of Joe Biden's administration, one of the main concerns in the White House and on Capitol Hill has been the immigration crisis, which not only causes massive detentions and deportations, but has also been the cause of humanitarian crises and deaths, many of them occurring under the most minimal conditions.

Last June, a trailer was found on the outskirts of the city of San Antonio in which 50 migrant corpses were lying, having died of asphyxiation, heatstroke and starvation.

Texas state authorities reported that the truck was driven by a human trafficker, who after realizing the mass death of migrants, fled.

According to local media, the trailer did have a refrigeration system, but it was either not working or had not been activated.

Smugglers, better known as polleros in the U.S.-Mexico border area, usually charge migrants a sum of money in exchange for transporting them illegally to the U.S. side of the border. However, on many occasions, the smugglers trick them and abandon them on desolate roads or in desolate places far from cities.

In September 2022 alone, U.S. Customs and Border Protection apprehended 78,000 migrants from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua. The rest were mostly from Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.

The waves of Venezuelan migration have increased due to Venezuela's economic instability, triggered by U.S. sanctions against Caracas. However, when Venezuelans arrive on U.S. soil, they encounter many obstacles to entry.

US immigration authorities returned more than 1,700 migrants from Venezuela to Mexican territory in four days following the decision of Joe Biden's government to apply Title 42 and expel those who enter illegally, according to Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard.

On October 12, the Department of Homeland Security approved a new scheme that will allow Venezuelan migrants to benefit from special protection, as long as they have a sponsor in that country or arrive by air. Under this new plan, the Biden administration will return to Mexico those who cross the border between the two countries illegally.

One day after its entry into force, the United States deported a first group of Venezuelan migrants who entered through the southern border. Since then, videos of Venezuelan migrants returned to Mexico have been circulating on social networks, describing the new immigration policy as unfair.

The United States returns between 340 and 450 Venezuelans to Mexico per day, according to data from the authorities of the Latin American country.