The Biden administration says the number of migrant apprehensions along the U.S.-Mexico border has dropped by more than 50% since June. That’s when President Joe Biden issued an executive order that drastically narrowed the ability to ask for asylum at the border — despite international agreements allowing that access.
Administration officials say border officers are now conducting an average of less than 1,800 apprehensions a day, according to the White House. That’s nearing the threshold that would require the executive action to be lifted.
Most apprehended under the order are swiftly sent back to Mexico or their home countries through a fast-tracked removal process, and banned from re-entering the U.S. for five years.
Rafael Velásquez, Mexico director for the aid organization International Rescue Committee, says after that, many are stuck.
“Where a large number of people seeking safety are stranded in Mexico, a country that does offer to some people a safe place to reconstruct your lives, but a place that is also home to 8 of the most dangerous cities in the world, a place that has six states that have double, if not triple, the homicide rate of places like Honduras, Haiti and Ecuador, ” he said. "And the brunt of the work that is needed to provide basic services for the vulnerable people in the condition of mobility, is taken by civil society, it is not being met by the international community."
Velasquez says Mexican government data shows some 7,000 people are regularly entering the country en route to the U.S. border. Other government data suggested there were a million people living in transit or displaced throughout Mexico.
He says Mexican authorities are also detaining more people, loading migrants onto buses and transporting them further away from the border, and fielding more asylum requests.
“An aggressive approach to deterrence, to militarize, and to push people down, away from the border,” he said.
Velasquez says the second-largest asylum offices in Mexico has been closed for the last few months, increasing the strain on that service and the amount of time it takes for applications to be processed.
He says his organization has also seen a spike in requests for information about asylum, along with a rise in violent attacks against migrants.
