US on pace to see more migrants at border than in last 20 years

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Tuesday that the US is on pace to see more Central American migrants arriving at the south-western border than it has in the last 20 years. In a written statement on the DHS website, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas said the department is expelling most single adults and families, but is not expelling the surge of unaccompanied minors.

In his statement, Mayorkas said the current surge of migrants arriving at the border with Mexico is “difficult” and that the department is working “around the clock” to manage it: “The COVID-19 pandemic has made the situation more complicated,” he said. “There are restrictions and protocols that need to be followed.” Moreover, Mayorkas added, the difficulty is exacerbated because the Trump administration “gutted” the asylum system and cut foreign aid to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, removing resources to “tackle the root causes of people fleeing their homes.”

Adding that such surges are not new (with surges in 2019 and 2014 and before then), Mayorkas said the number of migrants arriving has been steadily increasing since April 2020: “Poverty, high levels of violence, and corruption in Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries have propelled migration to our southwest border for years,” he said. “The adverse conditions have continued to deteriorate. Two damaging hurricanes that hit Honduras and swept through the region made the living conditions there even worse, causing more children and families to flee,” Mayorkas explained.

Nevertheless, Mayorkas stated: “Our goal is a safe, legal, and orderly immigration system that is based on our bedrock priorities: to keep our borders secure, address the plight of children as the law requires, and enable families to be together.”

While also emphasizing that securing the US border “does not require us to ignore the humanity of those who seek to cross them,” Mayorkas said: “We are expelling most single adults and families. We are not expelling unaccompanied children. We are securing our border, executing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) public health authority to safeguard the American public and the migrants themselves, and protecting the children.”

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