By Allan Wall, June 18, 2020
The United States has, in agreements with Canada to the north and Mexico to the south, extended the border agreements for the U.S. – Canadian and U.S. – Mexican border.
According to these agreements, initiated in March because of the COVID-19 pandemic and renewed monthly afterwards, the borders are closed to non-essential traffic.
The current agreement is set to end on July 21, 2020 but depending on the situation, might be renewed then, as it has before.
As of the latest report on Worldometer at the time of this writing (the night of June 16), the U.S. has 2,208,400 cases of COVID-19 and 119,132 deaths; Mexico has 159,462 with 19,040 deaths, and Canada has 99,467 with 8213 deaths.
As for proportional rates, the U.S. has had 6673 cases per million with 360 deaths per million, Mexico has had 1202 cases per million and 142 deaths per million, and Canada has had 2636 cases per million with 218 deaths per million.
We certainly need to keep an eye on the U.S. – Mexican border.
In the month of May, apprehensions of illegal crossers actually increased. Despite all the coronavirus publicity, people were still trying to cross the border in May.
In the month of May 2020, there were 21,475 illegal aliens who crossed the U.S. – Mexican border and were apprehended by the Border Patrol. That’s a 34% increase from the total in the month of April.
Note that May 2020 was the first month that the figure has increased since May of 2019 (with 132,856 detentions), after which the total began to decline.
The reason it began to decline was President Trump’s tariff threat, which pressured the Mexican government into cracking down on non-Mexicans crossing Mexico in order to get to the United States.
That was a bold move by Trump which produced good results. Trump was thinking outside the box; using his foreign policy authority to accomplish an immigration objective.
This was followed in March of 2020 by the coronavirus border policy which involved the immediate expulsion of illegal aliens.
So has the decline ended, and is it now going to increase each month? We have to wait and see if it’s a trend or just a glitch. But we sure had better keep an eye on it.
There are other interesting statistics, such as that, among the apprehended, the category of Single Adults increased by nearly 5,000. (That’s “single” in the sense of not traveling with a family.)
On the other hand, the category of Family Unit Aliens decreased nearly 99%, from 84,496 in May of 2019 to 972 in May of 2020.
And the Unaccompanied Alien Children category fell by nearly 92%, from 11,475 in May of 2019 to 959 in May of 2020.
That’s a positive development for everybody concerned.
The biggest group of apprehended illegals is now that of Mexican males.
According to Mark A. Morgan , Chief Operating Officer and acting Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, “CBP has seen a significant shift in migration demographics from this point last year. Most illegal alien encounters between ports of entry are now single adult men from Mexico, whereas last year the majority of illegal aliens encountered were families from the Northern Triangle.”
Morgan also tweeted that “Last month, 82% of our total enforcement encounters were Mexican nationals, while only 13% were from the Northern Triangle. Compare that to May 2019, when only 16% were from Mexico and 72% were from the Northern Triangle.”
This makes sense, since Mexico has reduced (but not eliminated) the crossing of non-Mexicans across Mexico, that the proportion of Mexicans crossing has risen.
Morgan also noted that, “CBP continues to work with MX [Mexican] counterparts to address illegal Mexican migration. We have strong coordination with MX [Mexico] on immediate expulsions and expulsion flights to southern MX [Mexico] to return migrants home safely. US & MX [Mexico] are committed to orderly, lawful migration.”
That is good, and can hopefully be maintained.
Hopefully the quantity of illegal crossers will be lower next month, but then again, we must be ready for anything.
