August Migrant Family Apprehensions Up 100 Percent over Last Year

The apprehension of migrant families by U.S. Border Patrol agents in August jumped by nearly 100 percent over the same month one year ago.

Border Patrol agents apprehended 25,057 Family Unit Aliens (FMUA) during the month of August, according to the Southwest Border Migration Report released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Monday. While this represents the third straight month-to-month decline, but the numbers are still nearly double the same month in 2018 (12,760).

Migrant apprehensions regularly fall during the heat of the summer, but the decreasing numbers are greater this year. CBP officials credit “unprecedented” actions on the part of President Donald Trump and his administration.

“Since Congress has failed and continues to fail to pass meaningful legislation to address the crisis at the border which would ultimately stop children from being used as passports and end the cartels’ ability to exploit this population as well as our laws, the Trump administration has taken a number of unilateral actions — unprecedented actions,” Commissioner Morgan said in a Monday press conference.

“The international outreach to the governments of Central America is beginning to yield effective and positive results,” Morgan explained. “Particularly, the efforts to stem the surge of illegal migrants crossing the southwest border and to disrupt alien smuggling organizations. The Northern Triangle countries specifically, along with the government of Mexico, have really joined the United States as true partners for the first time. They really are seeing this as a true regional crisis that needs continuing coordination, cooperation, and effort. — that this is not just a United States problem.”

During all of Fiscal Year 2019, Border Patrol agents apprehended 457,871 family units. More than 90 percent (419,831) of these families came to the U.S. from the Central American northern triangle countries — El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.

CBP officials listed the following numbers of Family Unit Aliens apprehended from Mexico and the Central American Northern Triangle region:

• Guatemala — 182.467
• Honduras — 182,449
• El Salvador — 54,915
• Mexico — 9,542

“This president and this administration, we keep having to go outside the box, within the current legal framework, to come up with new initiatives, new policies, and new regulations because this Congress won’t do their job,” Morgan stated. “That’s what really should frustrate the American people.”

The commissioner issued a stern warning to Congress. “Unless the laws change, these numbers will rise again next year, just as we’ve seen in the past,” the commissioner concluded. “We will again face the same kind of crisis we have for way too long.”