The U.S. Border Patrol arrested 91,000 migrants who crossed as part of a family group in August, breaking the previous one-month record of 84,486 that was set in May 2019.
Last month, families became the single largest demographic group crossing the border for the first time since President Biden took office, according to preliminary data obtained by the Washington Post. That title previously belonged to single adults.
More than half a million migrants who arrived as part of “family member units” have now surrendered at the border this fiscal year, breaking yet another record.
Arrests at the border have reason for three straight months, from 99,539 in June to 177,000 arrests last month.
Meanwhile, DHS has removed or returned more than 200,000 recently arrived migrants since May, including 17,000 who came to the U.S. as part of a family group, according to the report.
A spokesperson for DHS told the Washington Post the Biden administration is working to stem the influx by expanding lawful options and creating stricter penalties. The U.S. had repatriated more than 17,000 parents and children who crossed the border in a family group since May.
“But as with every year, the U.S. is seeing ebbs and flows of migrants arriving fueled by seasonal trends and the efforts of smugglers to use disinformation to prey on vulnerable migrants and encourage migration,” spokeswoman Erin Heeter said in a statement.
The Trump-era Remain in Mexico program, which sent asylum seekers back across the U.S.-Mexico border to wait while their cases wound through U.S. courts, helped the country get a handle on family crossings, as did the Title 42 public health order that allowed the U.S. to quickly expel border-crossers. The Biden administration fought to end the Remain in Mexico program throughout 2021 and 2022, and the use of Title 42 ended in May.
Now, the Biden administration is allowing up to 1,450 migrants per day to schedule an appointment to enter the country lawfully using a mobile app. Customs and Border Patrol encountered about 230,000 migrants at the border last month, the highest one-month total in 2023 so far.
Another program put in place by the administration allows roughly 30,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to obtain authorization to live and work in the United States for two years if they have a financial sponsor and clear background checks. The parole program allows applicants to enter the U.S. via flight, rather than crossing at the border.
Meanwhile, the ramifications of the crisis at the border are visible in other parts of the country. New York City has struggled to accommodate a surge of roughly 100,000 migrants since the spring of 2022.
New York City mayor Eric Adams and New York governor Kathy Hochul have each blamed the other for the sanctuary city’s struggle to handle the massive influx.