For the first time, the number of arrests of undocumented immigrants along the southwestern border exceeded two million in one year, reports the New York Times.
The number of arrests at the border increased slightly from July to August, with a total of more than 2.1 million for the first 11 months of the 2022 fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30. The number of removals over the past year, more than 1.3 million, was also more than any previous year.
In August, the number of immigrants from Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela caught crossing the southwestern border was nearly the same as the number of immigrants from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
The number of undocumented immigrants from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras is down 43 percent from August 2021; the number of Cubans, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans is up 175 percent.
Venezuelans are estimated to be the second-largest group of displaced people around the world, after Syrians.
Because the United States lacks diplomatic relations with those three countries, officials cannot repatriate the migrants as they do with people from other countries.