Around 1,000 migrants not connected to caravan apprehended in Arizona
Nov 15, 2018, 1:20 PM | Updated: 1:56 pm
(U.S. Customs and Border Protection Photo)
(U.S. Customs and Border Protection Photo)
PHOENIX — Around 1,000 migrants – mostly Central American families and unaccompanied minors who weren’t part of the highly publicized caravan making its way through Mexico — turned themselves in to Border Patrol agents in southwestern Arizona recently after entering the country illegally.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, more than 650 migrants were apprehended Monday and Tuesday by Yuma Sector agents, and about 400 were taken into custody over a two-day period last week.
“We wanted to make sure that people understand that it’s not just these large caravans, but these other groups that are coming, these over a thousand that have come in six days,” Justin Kallinger, Yuma Sector spokesman, told KTAR News 92.3 FM on Thursday.
“We want people to understand that this is a constant flow since 2014, especially the last few months.”
The migrants entered the United States on either side of the San Luis Port of Entry.
Kallinger said around 26,000 migrants have been apprehended in the Yuma Sector in October and November of this year. In those same months last year, there were 12,800 apprehensions.
“Most of these are all your ‘other than Mexicans’ — your Central Americans, the Guatemalans, Hondurans, El Salvadorans,” he said.
Kallinger said most of those taken into custody in the sector in past years were Mexican nationals who tried to flee from agents.
Now, migrants are being smuggled over and turning themselves in to the first Border Patrol agent they find.
“It is something different and with these large numbers makes it more of a humanitarian situation than it did in the past,” he said.
Migrants seeking asylum in the United States can do so only after entering the country, regardless of how they crossed the border.
President Donald Trump is attempting to change the asylum laws so claims can only be made at ports of entry.
But the busy ports of entry already have long lines and waits, forcing immigration officials to tell some migrants to turn around and come back to make their claims.
Backlogs have become especially bad in recent months at crossings in California, Arizona and Texas, with some people waiting five weeks to try to claim asylum at San Diego’s main crossing.
KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Griselda Zetino and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
