Influential factors that increase mass irregular migration

Border apprehension figures reported by CBP (Customs and Border Protection) have, understandably, caught the attention of the American public in recent months, especially since President Joe Biden took office in late January 2021. The surge of illegal border crossings, being national news, has sparked a gigantic debate regarding the Biden administration’s immigration ideals.

To understand the issue at hand, it is important to explain that, in March 2021, border entities reported the highest number of undocumented immigrants apprehended at the borders in 15 years, including unaccompanied minors, family units, and single adults. Adding to that, apprehension rates for April were released recently and are still quite high, although they did not reach the levels estimated by opposition groups. In fact, the number of border encounters in April was the highest monthly figure in 20 years.

The fact that the border surge is taking place during Biden’s first months as president of the US undoubtedly allows opposition groups, certain Republican members of Congress, and a part of the American population to blame his administration for the recent apprehension rates.

Clearly, it is possible that the change of administrations has some influence on irregular immigration levels, but, is it really the only factor involved in the situation in general? Or, is it important to also take into account what has happened in recent years with the local immigration system or, if it is the case, throughout history?

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Let’s analyze some crucial points:

Unaccompanied immigrant minors

The news media has been heavily focused on the way the Biden administration is handling the border situation when it mainly involves unaccompanied immigrant minors. In this case, it is important to remember that, unlike the Trump administration (2017-2021), Biden is not deporting children amid an unprecedented global health crisis. Therefore, his administration has tried to improve the process to receive minors in specialized facilities despite the fact that the previous administration worsened the border processing system and left no resources to assist migrant children. The situation has already improved substantially.

Global health crisis

In 2020, the global Coronavirus pandemic led to the partial or total closure of borders in most countries around the world. This fact worsened the pre-existing economic crisis in multiple Central American countries, if not all. Therefore, after several months in which immigration levels fell sharply in the US, they were expected to increase as border restrictions were gradually relaxed. In fact, CBP’s apprehension report clearly shows that the number of border encounters has increased since late 2020 and not just after presidente Biden took office.

The Trump administration’s restrictions, rules and limitations

The previous administration, led by former President Donald Trump, made hundreds of changes to the immigration system, hindering most existing processes, affecting vulnerable populations and restricting immigration in general. Now that several of his restrictive policies are no longer active, it appears as if immigration levels increased disproportionately, but in fact, the reality is that they decreased disproportionately over the past four years.

You may also be interested: Is the US Responsible for Irregular Immigration?

It is worth explaining that, in the article mentioned above, we talked about other circumstances that force thousands of people to migrate to the US, but that are not necessarily related to the new administration, nor to restrictive or permissive policies. Rather, they have to do with conditions inherent to Central American territory such as violence, corruption and famine.

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