The number of immigrants from Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba who arrived at the southern border of the United States increased significantly in July, according to a report by the United States Customs and Border Protection Agency (CBP).
“Migrants from Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua have steadily increased, accounting for 37 percent of non-Mexican encounters since fiscal 2022 to date, compared to 8 percent between 2014 and 2019,” the company reported.
However, the agency pointed out that the number of irregular immigrants in general had declined for the second straight month.
“While encounter numbers remain high, this is a positive trend and the first two-month decline since October 2021,” CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus said in a statement.
The arrival of immigrants in large numbers remains a challenge for the White House, which has kept the issue at the heart of its agenda since President Joe Biden took office in 2021.
The number of Venezuelans seeking asylum in the US has increased significantly in the last five months of this year.
In February, the authorities had recorded the arrival of 3,225 Venezuelans, while last July it was 17,815, much higher but slightly lower than in December 2021 when they registered 24,946.
Cuban migrants row to Stock Island near Key West, Florida on Friday, August 12, 2022.
In the last five years, the humanitarian crisis triggered in Venezuela by the difficult economic and political conditions has led to this more than 6 million of Venezuelans seeking refuge worldwide.
“Seventeen countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are generously hosting about 80 percent of this Venezuelan diaspora, including about 1.8 million in Colombia, 1.3 million in Peru, and large numbers in Ecuador, Chile, Brazil, and elsewhere,” monthly report.
Cubans are arriving en masse at the US-Mexico border on a scale surpassing even the Mariel Exodus of 1980 and the so-called Los Balseros Crisis of 1994. As of September 2021, 177,848 Cubans have arrived in the United States seeking asylum or refuge.
A group of migrants are intercepted by U.S. Border Patrol on July 26, 2022 in Eagle Pass, Texas.
Meanwhile, the number of Nicaraguans who arrived in the US in an irregular migration situation rose to 12,131 from the June census, when 11,258 arrived.
The Republican opposition has criticized the Biden administration for what it sees as a permissive “open border” policy. Southern Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has been a critical supporter of the White House and sent buses full of immigrants to the capital Washington DC, which has provoked a critical reaction from the state authorities.
“Biden’s open borders policy has created a crisis on our southern border. This crisis emboldens smugglers, cartel members and terrorists. Texas will continue to take unprecedented steps to secure our border until the federal government does its job,” Abbott said in a tweet Tuesday.
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