Bidens Border Crackdown Could Disproportionately Affect Families

Between 2018 and 2019, the number of migrants in family units who crossed the border illegally increased significantly, with a jump to 432,838 from 77,794, representing a 456 percent increase. Additionally, the number of apprehended migrants who were single adults climbed by 30 percent, reaching 258,375 from 198,492.

In the previous year, a total of 621,311 family units were apprehended after crossing the southern border.

In recent years, Mexican families displaced by cartels controlling large areas of territory have been crossing the border in rising numbers to seek safety in the United States.

During the first eight months of the 2024 fiscal year, which commenced on Oct. 1, the Border Patrol apprehended almost 150,000 Mexican migrant families entering the U.S. illegally, a significant rise from the 87,014 in 2023 and 17,040 in 2020.

Kathleen Bush-Joseph, a policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, highlighted the influx of Mexican families and the ease with which they can be sent back to their country via bus.

The implementation of new restrictions, including the removal of families and the exemption for unaccompanied minors, is likely to result in family separations as desperate parents opt to send their children alone, often with smugglers.

In a shocking incident, a 4-year-old child was dropped over the steel wall separating San Diego from Tijuana last year, surviving the ordeal. Two years prior, agents rescued two young sisters, aged 3 and 5, who had been dropped on the U.S. side of the barrier in New Mexico.