CNN
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The number of people illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in January marked the lowest level of encounters since February 2021, administration officials said Friday.
US Border Patrol agents made more than 128,000 arrests in January, down 42% from December, according to government officials.
The handling of the U.S.-Mexico border has become a political vulnerability for President Joe Biden, who faces criticism from Republicans and possible impeachment proceedings for the Secretary of Homeland Security. While the White House has generally held out until it resolves the issue, the drop in the number of border crossings has instilled new confidence in administration officials that the new measures are helping the decline.
In recent weeks, government officials have said a new program to provide legal routes to the United States has helped reduce border crossings. Meetings with immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela — his four nationalities benefiting from the program — have dropped dramatically, officials said.
“The number of illegal border crossings has plummeted since the president announced a new border initiative on Jan. 5,” a government official told reporters on Friday, adding that immigration from Central America also dropped significantly. He added that it had decreased.
It is unclear how long this trend will continue, as the number of borders often fluctuates depending on conditions in the Western Hemisphere. The administration has also continued to rely on Trump-era Covid restrictions, known as Title 42, which allow officials to expel certain immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, which may expire soon. I have.
But officials say new measures, such as the use of new programs and apps for processing, and coordination with Mexico have contributed to the decline in encounters.