Biden’s Border Tightening Could Impact Families Disproportionately

TL/DR –

Between 2018 and 2019, the number of migrants in family units illegally crossing the border increased by 456 percent to 432,838. There has been a growing number of Mexican families displaced by cartels crossing the border to seek safety in the U.S, with nearly 150,000 Mexican migrant families apprehended in the first eight months of the 2024 fiscal year. The new migration restrictions are likely to lead to family separations as parents may decide to send their children alone, often with smugglers.

Surge in Illegal Border Crossings By Migrant Families

Between 2018 and 2019, the number of migrants in family units crossing the border illegally saw a 456 percent increase, from 77,794 to 432,838. Apprehended single adult migrants climbed 30 percent, rising to 258,375 from 198,492. In 2019, 621,311 families were detained at the southern border.

Mexican families displaced by cartel-controlled territories have been crossing the US border in increasing numbers. In the first eight months of the fiscal year 2024, Border Patrol apprehended nearly 150,000 Mexican families crossing the US border illegally, a significant rise compared to 87,014 in 2023 and 17,040 in 2020.

“Large numbers of Mexican families are crossing, and they’re easily returned,” stated Kathleen Bush-Joseph, a policy analyst at Migration Policy Institute, due to the convenience of bus transportation back to Mexico.

The new restrictions for family removals and exemptions for unaccompanied minors could lead to family separations as parents may resort to sending their children alone. Notably, a 4-year-old child was found in the US over the steel wall from Tijuana in May of the previous year. Similarly, in the earlier year, agents rescued two young sisters, aged 3 and 5, abandoned on the US side of the barrier in New Mexico.

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