Acting Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Mark Morgan said yesterday the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement has shut down undocumented immigration from Central America, amid dropping border apprehension numbers.
CBP announced 33,510 people were apprehended crossing the southwest border in November, down from 35,415 in October. A further 9,139 people were turned away at ports of entry in November, down slightly from 9,762 in October.
Apprehensions and turn-aways at border checkpoints have been falling for six straight months, to 42,649 in November from 144,116 in May, when 132,856 people were apprehended crossing the border illegally and 11,260 people were turned away at ports of entry.
Morgan attributed the drop to the Trump administration’s efforts to recruit the governments of Mexico and the Central American Northern Triangle — Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador — to help in reducing regional migration. “We have all but ended catch and release. If you are a family from the Northern Triangle countries you are no longer released into the interior of the United States simply because you have a child,” Morgan told reporters at a press conference Monday.
“The era of catch and release is done. Coming to this country with a child is no longer going to be a passport in the United States, that is done,” he added.
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