The Border Patrol has arrested over 688,000 migrants in the U.S. southern border in the last eight months, which is saturating government resources and dangerously cramming detention centers.
The figures reported corresponds to the period from October 2018 to June 2019, of which more than half were families and unaccompanied minors.
Although people from all over the world enter the United States through the border with Mexico, the vast majority came from the countries that make up the northern triangle in Central America, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, Central American countries where violence and poverty have punished many lives.
The trip to the north is long and dangerous, and sometimes migrants are victims of kidnapping or robbery.
The Trump administration has adopted a series of new policies that make it almost impossible to apply for asylum through border crossings, including a dramatic reduction in the number of migrants who are allowed to apply for asylum.
Migrants who want to apply for asylum in the United States are forced to wait in Mexico, adding thousands of other people on a waiting list. Months pass until they are allowed to approach US officials to begin the process. Waiting lists are managed by the migrants themselves, as well as by local shelters and Mexican authorities. The US government decides how many people can apply for asylum daily, but there are days when they don’t call anyone in some cities.
Trump’s latest announcement disqualifies all asylum seekers who passed through another country to reach the United States. This change, which according to pro-immigrant activists violates international and US law, is being appealed in court, and on Wednesday, July 24, a federal judge in San Francisco issued a preliminary injunction that prevents such policy from being applied while the lawsuit is decided.
The journey for migrants seeking a new life in the United States is long and difficult and does not end when they arrive at their destination. And although the number of migrants arriving at the border has fallen in recent weeks, largely due to the summer heat as well as the measures taken by the Mexican authorities to stop them, it is difficult for the US authorities to forecast the migratory patterns that will occur in the future.
