June 1, 2021
The U.S.-Mexico border is seeing record numbers of Venezuelan migrants—an estimated over 6,000 migrants crossed the border last month, a sharp contrast to the fewer than 1,000 migrants that have crossed the border each year for the past decade. Typically, Venezuelans have flown into the U.S. but are not taking much more desperate measures to seek entry as Venezuela’s human rights crisis deepens.
Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced that he will propose a new regional migration agreement during the virtual Climate Summit. This proposal includes the expansion of legal work programs in Mexico and the United States, with an eventual pathway to U.S. citizenship.
Over 171,000 migrants were encountered on the southern border during March 2021, according to preliminary CBP data. This is the highest monthly total since 2006.
78,323 migrants have been reportedly processed or apprehended during the month of January, a slight uptick from the previous month. Rates of migrants trying to cross the border more than once are up to 38 percent from 7 percent.
2020 was the deadliest year on record for migrants crossing into Arizona, with 225 remains of migrants found so far according to Humane Borders and the Pima County Medical Examiner. This is likely due to a combination of border wall construction forcing migrants to take remote routes, increased CBP hostility to humanitarian groups, and soaring temperatures.
The Biden administration will take several months to fully reestablish the asylum process on the US-Mexico border, according to an interview with Susan Rice and Jake Sullivan, Biden’s picks for domestic policy adviser and national security adviser. Rice and Sullivan cautioned migrants that “now is not the time” to come to the border.
Army Corps of Engineers estimates show that if Joe Biden stopped border wall construction on day 1, it would save taxpayers around 2.6 billion, even accounting for the costs of ending contracts with border wall construction companies.