The Miami Border Patrol sector has broken the annual record for migrant apprehensions in just four months. According to the Department of Homeland Security, more than 81,000 undocumented immigrants were detained crossing the southern border in the sector in the first four months of the year.
The number of apprehended immigrants is the highest in the sector’s history and is nearly double the current year’s total of 41,000. Since October 2020, a total of 121,000 immigrants have been apprehended in the Miami sector, which spans from south of the Florida Keys to north of Savannah, Georgia.
The vast majority of the individuals apprehended in the Miami sector are from Central America. In April, 55 percent of those detained were from Guatemala, 29 percent from Honduras, and 16 percent from El Salvador.
The surge in illegal border crossings has put pressure on the Biden administration, which has slowly increased the number of beds in migrant processing centers. In response, the administration has opened five new facilities in Texas and Arizona to accommodate the influx of immigrants.
The Biden administration is also stepping up efforts to dissuade people from making the potentially dangerous journey to the US border. The administration is working with the Northern Triangle countries, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, to address the root causes of migration.
In addition, the administration is planning to expand a Trump-era program, called Title 42, which allows the Department of Homeland Security to quickly expel certain immigrants without a hearing. Under Title 42, many unaccompanied minors have been deported without the chance to be placed in the system for finding a relative in the US.
Despite the administration’s efforts to curb illegal border crossing and reduce the number of immigrant apprehensions, the record levels in the Miami sector indicate that the influx is not going away anytime soon.