Southern Border Humanitarian Crisis

In the most recent fiscal year (Oct. 1, 2020 to Sept. 30, 2021), 1,659,206 people were apprehended by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at the southern border with Mexico. This represents the highest number of crossings ever recorded (above the prior records of 1,643,679 in 2000 and 1,615,844 in 1986). In fiscal year 2022, only data for October and November 2021 has been released as of Jan. 19, 2022. In October, there were 164,753 encounters and in November, there were 173,620 for a total of 338,373. This is already 20% of the full 2021 fiscal year total.

The southern border of the U.S. has long been a crossing point for people coming from Mexico, or through Mexico from other countries, into the U.S. While asylum-seeking and border crossing is often identified as a problem with Mexican immigrants, from 2000 to 2016 unlawful Mexican immigration dropped off by almost 90 percent.

In fiscal year 2021, however, the largest single origin source of migration was Mexico, with the border patrol arresting more than 608,000 Mexican nationals or 37% of the total. The next largest category was “other” – anyone not from Mexico or Central America” and includes Cubans, Haitians, Brazilians, Venezuelans, Ecuadorans – which accounted for 367,000 arrests. Central American migrant arrests – primarily from the Northern Triangle – included Honduras (308,931 or 19% of all encounters), Guatemala (279,033 or 17%) and El Salvador (95,830 or 6%).

According to the Pew Research Center, “Encounters soared in fiscal 2021 for some countries that have not historically been common sources of migration at the U.S.-Mexico border. The number of encounters involving people from Ecuador, for example, increased more than eightfold, from 11,861 in fiscal 2020 to 95,692 in fiscal 2021. There were also stark increases in encounters involving people from Brazil (from 6,946 to 56,735), Nicaragua (from 2,123 to 49,841), Venezuela (from 1,227 to 47,752), Haiti (from 4,395 to 45,532) and Cuba (from 9,822 to 38,139).”

The U.S. has expelled almost all of the people who have tried to cross, with the exception of unaccompanied, minor children, using a controversial piece of public health legislation – Section 265 of U.S. Code Title 42. This legislation prohibits entry into the U.S. by any person who may be in danger of bringing a communicable disease with them and has been implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. While usually not seen to include refugee or asylum speakers who have already entered U.S. soil, the legislation was expanded to include all land and coastal ports of entry. From March to November 2020, this legislation included unaccompanied children but that was struck down by a federal judge on Nov. 18, 2020. The rest are usually deported under Title 8 which pertains to aliens and nationality. In fiscal year 2021, 61% of migrants were processed for expulsion under Title 42.

The Council on Foreign Relations defines “unaccompanied minors” as, “Under U.S. law, unaccompanied alien children (UAC) are defined as migrants under eighteen years old with no lawful status in the United States and who have no parent or legal guardian available to care for them. Despite the term’s connotation, these children do not necessarily enter the country alone. Some arrive with family members and are separated at the border; others are abandoned by smugglers or fellow migrants near the border.”

Pew says, “Migrant encounters increased across demographic groups in fiscal 2021, but single adults continued to account for the large majority. Encounters with unaccompanied children rose from 30,557 in fiscal 2020 to 144,834 in fiscal 2021, while encounters with people traveling in families increased from 52,230 to 451,087. By far the largest number and share of encounters involved single adults. There were 1,063,285 encounters with single adults in fiscal 2021, up from 317,864 the year before. More than six-in-ten encounters (64%) involved single adults, though that was down from 79% in fiscal 2020.”

In the first two months of fiscal year 2022, there have been 26,742 unaccompanied minors detained by Border Patrol (or 7.9% of the total). This is a much lower number than at this point last year.

The government tries to quickly move apprehended children from detainment camps to health and human service facilities (including shelters or group homes), relocate them into foster homes or reunite them with a relative. About 85%of unaccompanied minors have a relative in the U.S. No statistics have been released for fiscal 2022, but as of Sept. 30, 2021, there were 13,730 children in Health and Human Services care.

Since 1998, it is believed that more than 7,000 people have died while trying to make it to the border or while crossing. One method of measuring the death toll is to count the number of human remains that have been found near the border. In Arizona, 43 remains of migrants were found in June and 127 people over the first six months of 2021. In Texas, there were 50 migrant deaths in the first six months, as reported by the Brooks County Sheriff’s department. And in Big Bend that number was 32. In California, from Oct. 1, 2020, to the end of Sept. 2021 (the fiscal year) there were 31 border crosser deaths.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported that there were at least 650 deaths of migrants crossing the border during 2021. IOM says that is the most of any year since 2014. U.S. Customs and Border Patrol reported 557 deaths in fiscal year 2021 (Oct. 1, 2020, to Sept. 30, 2021). It says most deaths are connected to heat. This year’s deaths are much higher than 2020 (254 deaths) and 2019 (300 deaths).

As of Dec. 10, 2021, the Southern Border Communities Coalition reports that 160 people have died since 2010 due to interaction with U.S. border agents, including several who died while in CBP custody. In 2021, 46 people died including deaths by suicide, medical emergencies, vehicle accidents, drownings and “use of force” fatal shootings.

Reports on abuse allegations were received by Human Rights Watch at the end of September 2021 through Freedom of Information Act requests. “The internal reports include testimony and descriptions of testimony regarding over 160 cases of misconduct and abuse of asylum applicants at the hands of officers within several DHS components, particularly CBP officers and Border Patrol agents. The records, though heavily redacted, demonstrate that asylum officers within US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), another component of DHS, have repeatedly provided internal reports on allegations of assault, sexual abuse, due process violations, denial of medical care, harsh detention conditions, and dehumanizing treatment at the border.”