'Don't come': US facing biggest migrant surge in 20 years
The United States is facing the biggest surge of migrants at its southwestern border in 20 years, the homeland security secretary said as the Biden administration races to handle an influx of children trying to cross the US-Mexico border alone.
Let's take a look:
Asylum seeking migrant families and unaccompanied minors from Central America take refuge in a makeshift U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing center under the Anzalduas International Bridge after crossing the Rio Grande river into the United States from Mexico in Granjeno, Texas
The number of attempted border crossings by people from Central America and Mexico has steadily increased since April 2020 and most single adults and families are being turned away, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said.
(Photograph:Reuters)
Zoe, 18-month-old asylum seeking migrant girl from Honduras, cries while being held by her mother Evelyn as she and other migrants await to be transported by the U.S. Border Patrol after crossing the Rio Grande river into the United States from Mexico on a raft in Penitas, Texas
Poverty, violence and corruption in the Mexico and the Northern Triangle - Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador - have led people to seek a better life in the United States for years, and there have been surges in the past.
(Photograph:Reuters)
A migrant from Central America gets his Covid-19 test after he is dropped off by the US Customs and Border Protection at a bus station near the Gateway International Bridge, between the cities of Brownsville, Texas, and Matamoros, Mecio
Conditions in Mexico and the Northern Triangle - Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador have continued to deteriorate and two hurricanes made living conditions even worse, while the coronavirus pandemic complicated the border situation.
(Photograph:AFP)
US border agents
US border agents conducted 100,441 apprehensions or expulsions of migrants at the border with Mexico in February, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection said last week, the highest monthly total since a border crisis of 2019.
(Photograph:AFP)
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The Biden government is creating a joint processing centre to transfer the children promptly into the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and is trying to find additional shelters for them
The Biden government is creating a joint processing centre to transfer the children promptly into the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and is trying to find additional shelters for them.
President Joe Biden's administration has been struggling to speed up the processing of hundreds of youths under 18 who are crossing the southern border alone every day.
Biden urged migrants not to come to the United States on Tuesday, as criticism mounted over a surge in people arriving at the southern border with Mexico -- including thousands of unaccompanied children.