Arrests along Mexico border surged again in May, blowing past 'breaking point'
WASHINGTON - The Central American migration boom that has swamped U.S. authorities grew even larger in May, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection statistics released Wednesday that show more than 144,000 migrants were taken into custody, a 32% jump from April.
It was by far the largest one-month arrest total since President Donald Trump took office, and it was the highest monthly figure in 13 years, CBP officials said Wednesday afternoon.
May was the third month in a row that border detentions topped 100,000, led by record-breaking levels of illegal crossings by Guatemalan and Honduran parents bringing children. CBP officials told reporters that agents and officers detained more than 100,000 family members and children, leaving holding cells "bursting at the seams."
"We are in a full-blown emergency, and I cannot say this stronger: The system is broken," said acting CBP Commissioner John Sanders.
Sanders said his agency has detained more than 680,000 border crossers in the past eight months, he said, noting that the total is "more than the population of Miami."
The historic surge has become a source of incessant frustration for Trump, whose administration has tried to deter the migrants with ever-harsher enforcement tactics.
Having already fired most of the leadership of the Department of Homeland Security, Trump last week returned to another frequent target for blame, the government of Mexico, threatening to add tariffs on imported goods.
Mexican diplomats are in Washington this week, trying to change Trump's mind, but the president's 5% tariff on Mexican imports is due to take effect on Monday unless Congress blocks him.
The May border-crossing figure amounts to a 182% increase over May 2018, and it is a sixfold leap from May 2017, when border arrests were near their lowest level in half a century and U.S. authorities detained fewer than 20,000 crossers.
CBP officials described in detail the strains of the migration wave on U.S. agents and infrastructure, and they discussed the deteriorating conditions at U.S. border stations that are many times beyond their detainee capacity.
The agency has more than 19,000 migrants in custody, officials said, leaving Border Patrol holding cells so packed that detainees spend days in dirty, cramped conditions, sometimes without enough floor space to lie down, while waiting to be processed.
"I've never seen anything like this in the 24 years I've been doing this job," said Brian Hastings, the Border Patrol's operations chief.
CBP officials say Border Patrol agents now spend 50 percent of their time processing migrants and caring for families in custody, including frequent trips to hospitals and clinics. U.S. authorities say the burden has been a boon to drug traffickers and human smugglers who aim to sneak past U.S. defenses, particularly when hundreds of migrants cross the border at the same time.
Last week in El Paso, Texas, a single-file procession of 1,045 people crossed through the Rio Grande to surrender to U.S. agents, the largest group the Border Patrol has ever encountered.