August one of worst months on record for attempted illegal crossing at US-Mexico border

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – The number of migrant interceptions at the US-Mexico border last month rose by 106% since February and by 317% since last year, CNS News reports. August was one of the worst months on record with 208,887 encounters along the border last month.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported Wednesday that the larger-than-usual number of persons intercepted is partly due to the many expulsions carried out during the pandemic: 25 percent of those intercepted in August had made a prior attempt to cross in the last year. A total of 1,002,722 unique individuals were intercepted to date in Fiscal Year 2021, compared to 851,513 during the same time period in Fiscal Year 2019.

According to the CBP report, 49% of those attempting to cross were single adults, most of whom are being sent back. “The vast majority of single adults encountered in August, along with a substantial share of families, continued to be expelled under the CDC’s Title 42 authority,” the CBP said on its website.

Around half of those intercepted last month were unaccompanied minors or people traveling with families, the CBP said. “16,240 encounters involving family unit individuals (19 percent) were processed for expulsion under Title 42, with 70,247 processed under Title 8,” the CBP reported. There were 18,847 encounters with unaccompanied minors in August compared to 18,958 in July, representing a decrease of 1%.

So far in Fiscal Year 2021, some 72,000 migrants have been processed in expedited removal proceedings.

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