EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Migrant encounters are holding steady in El Paso and New Mexico, bucking a national downward trend in apprehensions and the surrender of asylum-seekers.
The El Paso Sector of the U.S. Border Patrol reported 30,393 migrant encounters in April compared to 30,421 in March, a difference of only 28 apprehensions. In all the Southwest border, surrenders and apprehensions fell by 8,583, or more than 6 percent.
Since Oct. 1, though, El Paso has seen a 41 percent decrease compared to the first seven months of the record Fiscal Year 2023, in which the sector led the country in migrant encounters.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection Acting Commissioner Troy Miller credited the nationwide drop to more enforcement, more deportations and cooperation with other countries.
Mexico was key in the latest downturn.
Foreign Minister Alicia Barcena said at a public event in Mexico City this week that her government has pledged to keep the number of foreign nationals arriving at the U.S. border to fewer than 4,000 a day. Mexico in the past three months has been stepping up enforcement at the border with Guatemala and on cargo trains which large groups of migrants routinely use to travel north.
In Juarez, that enforcement faltered in late April, as hundreds of people arrived at the city across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, by train for three consecutive days. Small but steady groups mostly of Venezuelan migrants were seen surrendering to the U.S. Border Patrol by the border wall after sorting the miles-long Texas barbwire barrier at the river.
Most encounters in April in the El Paso Sector, which includes Hudspeth and El Paso counties in Texas and all the state of New Mexico, involved citizens of countries other than Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, according to CBP data.
“During the month of May we have recorded an average of 1,000 daily encounters throughout the El Paso Sector,” the U.S. Border Patrol said in a statement to Border Report. “The top five nationalities we encounter are Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia and Venezuela.”
The Border Patrol enforces U.S. immigration law primarily between ports of entry where most illegal crossings take place. The agency says it continues to place migrants with no legal basis to remain in the country in Title 8 proceedings. Those can result in removal and a five-year immigration ban.