Nov. 15 (UPI) — U.S. Customs and Border Patrol saw a 14 percent decline in the number of migrants stopped at the border in October, figures released Thursday indicate.
Agents arrested 35,444 people who crossed the border between ports of entry and deemed 9,806 migrants who presented themselves at legal ports of entry to be inadmissible.
Together, 45,250 people were stopped at border, down from 52,546 in September. It’s also a 25 percent decrease from October 2018.
Of those apprehended, 2,848 were unaccompanied children, 9,733 were family units and 22,863 were single adults. Of those deemed inadmissible, 389 were unaccompanied children, 4,025 were family units, 52,91 were single adults and 101 were accompanied children.
Acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan attributed the decline to the “hardworking men and women” of his agency and partner agencies. He also lauded President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration.
“This administration has and continues to take bold action to address this crisis and the numbers show it’s working,” he told reporters during a briefing.
The decline came after a year of record high border apprehensions. CBP apprehended 851,508 migrants in fiscal year 2019, and deemed 126,001 inadmissible for a combined 977,509 migrants. The monthly high was in May with a combined 144,116 migrants stopped at the border.
Last year, the United States saw an influx of migrants largely from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, many coming in what administration officials described as “caravans,” walking hundreds of miles north through Mexico. Morgan said that in October, for the first time in nearly 18 months, the majority of migrants came from Mexico.
