Another Epic Migrant Drama at the Southern Border, Still Largely Invisible
Todd Bensman
Center for Immigration Studies
Oct. 5, 2012
Before a Del Rio, Texas, migrant camp of 15,000 briefly captured national and White House attention, another volcanic rupture point in the southern border fault line was already flaring: this one in Yuma, Ariz.
In a sign that the Department of Homeland Security sees the Yuma Sector as poised to blow even more out of control, agents in other still-beleaguered sectors have been called in to help process an international medley of migrants streaming through this desert wilderness on the California-Arizona state line. Swells of border-crossers have forced the government to establish temporary tent shelters to process many of the illegal migrants into the country.
From October 2020 through August 2021, the most recent U.S. Customs and Border Protection apprehension numbers available, agents encountered 91,841 migrants from mostly Haiti and South America, but also from around the world. In August alone, agents encountered 17,097 migrants, up from 684 that month in 2020, the highest of all nine sectors. That’s a 2,400 percent spike through August 2021 compared to the same time frame in 2020.
Of course, 2020 numbers were at an historic nadir because of pandemic policies that year. But even adjusting for that, the numbers coming in through Yuma on a monthly basis show that something new and very different is afoot.
There is much more here from CIS.org.
