Thread: Mexicans outnumbered in border arrests

Non-Mexicans make up a bigger share of apprehensions for first time

By Greg Moran7:13 p.m.Dec. 30, 2014

More non-Mexicans were arrested trying to illegally enter the U.S. than Mexicans this past year, signaling a potentially historic shift in immigration patterns across the nation’s southwest border.

An analysis of apprehensions data from the U.S. Border Patrol by the Pew Research Center, released Tuesday, concluded it was the first time on record that there were more non-Mexicans than Mexicans arrested.

Overall, some 486,000 people were arrested at the borders in the federal fiscal year that ended in September. That’s an increase of 16 percent from the 2013 fiscal year, a jump that is attributed to the huge increase in mostly Central Americans surging to the U.S. border from strife-torn countries such as El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua.

The total of arrests is down markedly from its peak in 2000, when 1.6 million people were apprehended at the nation’s borders.

Since then the government has poured billions of dollars in manpower, equipment and infrastructure such as fences and high-tech sensors to strengthen the border.

A separate report released last week by the Department of Homeland Security on border security found the same patterns at work. That report said that arrests of unaccompanied minors at the border increased 76 percent in 2014 from the previous year.

In 2013 there were 38,000 children arrested at the border. That number jumped to 68,000 this past year. The number of “family units” apprehended increased even more, from 15,000 in 2013 to 68,684, the government report said.

The data are sure to figure in to the ongoing debates over reforming the nation’s immigration laws, and to what extent border security should be increased.

Gabe Pacheco, a spokesman for the union representing Border Patrol agents, said that the drop in apprehensions of Mexicans can be attributed to the surge in border security.

“There are areas along the border that historically people would use to enter the country, where we now have enforcement in place, and it’s now very hard to cross,” he said.

But other factors are at work other than stepped-up enforcement, said Andrea Guerrero, executive director of Alliance San Diego, an unauthorized immigrants rights advocacy group that has been critical of the increased security.

She said the drop-off is because of economic factors in Mexico, not security spending in the U.S.

“Mexico has had economic success for the past five to seven years, so less and less people are leaving because there is more economic opportunity there,” she said.

Guerrero said she thinks that the majority of Mexicans who are now arrested trying to get into the U.S. are people who have been deported after living here illegally and are trying to get back in.

“We’re seeing people who have been deported after living in the U.S. for years, who have families here and are trying to reunite,”she said. ”Those are the bulk of the people being apprehended.”

The Pew study said that the number of unauthorized immigrants from Mexico who are arrested declined from 257,000 in 2013 to 229,000 in 2014.

That is a steep drop from 2007, the year before the Great Recession in the U.S. that drove unemployment up, when 809,000 Mexicans were arrested trying to enter the country.

While the number of Mexicans apprehended has declined, the 16 percent increase in overall apprehensions continued a trend of more apprehensions each years since 2011, when there were 340,000 arrests.

The government said that apprehensions in 2014 of people from countries other than Mexico increased 68 percent from the previous year, primarily Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

The surge from those countries to the border built through the summer, sparking protests in border cities, overwhelming social service agencies and forcing the Obama administration to change plans for immigration reform.

The influx dropped in the autumn months, attributed to a variety of factors such as a campaign of public service announcements in Central America warning of the dangers of the journey through Mexico. At one point during the surge some experts estimated close to 90,000 unaccompanied minors could make that journey, but the data released this month shows the actual number was less.

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/...nsions-border/

Originally Posted by Jean

. . . Overall, some 486,000 people were arrested at the borders in the federal fiscal year that ended in September. . .

. . . The Pew study said that the number of unauthorized immigrants from Mexico who are arrested declined from 257,000 in 2013 to 229,000 in 2014 . . .

Illegal aliens from Mexico still out number illegals from any other country.
You have to count the illegal aliens from almost every country in the world to outnumber the Mexicans.