Nuñez-Neto attributed the lower numbers to tighter immigration enforcement by Mexico and other nations in the hemisphere, along with the Biden administration’s new policies inviting more migrants to apply to enter the United States legally.
“The situation on the border is very fluid,” Nuñez-Neto said. “It is still way too early to draw any firm conclusions.”
Biden officials predicted for months that illegal crossings would increase when the Title 42 border policy expired and U.S. agents could no longer use its emergency authorities to rapidly expel border-crossers back to Mexico or their home countries.
But migrants interviewed along the border in recent days said they saw the former policy’s May 11 expiration date as a deadline to reach the United States. They cited warnings from U.S. officials that the pandemic policy would be replaced by tougher measures that included fast-track deportations.
U.S. authorities have carried out thousands of deportations to more than 10 countries since Friday, Nuñez-Neto said.
Hundreds of migrants including Cubans, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans have been sent back across the southern border under new measures that for the first time allow the large-scale formal deportation of non-Mexicans to Mexico, he said.
Unlike the expulsions, deportations carry legal penalties including a five-year bar on returning to the United States and possible criminal charges.
Other nations are taking steps to stiffen enforcement, Nuñez-Neto said. Security forces in Mexico and Guatemala have reinforced their southern borders in recent days to limit new arrivals, and Panama and Colombia are targeting smugglers sending people on the dangerous trek through the jungles of the Darién Gap region, he said.
The decline in crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border has helped to partially ease overcrowding in border stations and processing tents that were stretched far beyond capacity last week when U.S. agents had to contend with record-setting numbers of illegal entries.
On Monday morning, U.S. Customs and Border Protection had roughly 21,000 migrants in custody along the border, down about 30 percent from last week’s peak, according to the latest government data obtained by The Washington Post.
Border agents made about 4,500 arrests along the border Sunday, a level of enforcement activity that remains high by historic standards but closer to what the Biden administration was facing during the winter months when crossings slowed.
“We are mindful that smugglers will continue to look for ways to take advantage of the change in border policies,” Nuñez-Neto said. “And it is important to note that while Title 42 has ended, the conditions that are causing hemispheric migration at unprecedented levels have not changed.”
Biden has replaced the pandemic expulsion policy with new measures making it easier for authorities to deport asylum seekers who cross illegally or don’t seek protection in another nation they travel through before reaching the U.S. border. Officials did not respond to requests for information about the number of asylum seekers who have been rejected so far under the tighter new rules.
Nuñez-Neto acknowledged that federal lawsuits — filed by liberals and conservatives — could derail the administration’s border plans.
With Congress unable to reach a compromise on immigration reform, the Biden administration says it has been forced to address mass migration without new legislation. Officials have created policies to reduce crowding in border jails and to punish asylum seekers who cross the border illegally.
But those policies are facing a possible takedown in court: A federal judge in Florida ruled last week that the administration cannot quickly release migrants from border jails without a court date to relieve overcrowding. Another judge in Texas is considering a Republican-led lawsuit to stop a special “parole” program that allows migrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti to apply to enter legally. These groups have crossed in large numbers since Biden took office and are difficult to deport because of conditions in their homelands.
Advocacy groups have asked a federal judge in California to knock down a new rule that presumes that asylum seekers who transited through another country on their way to the U.S. border are ineligible for asylum. The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups argued that the rule is an attempt to “resuscitate” President Donald Trump’s asylum restrictions that the same judge previously struck down.
“After campaigning on a promise to restore our asylum system, the Biden administration has instead doubled down on its predecessor’s cruel asylum restrictions,” lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups said in a court filing Thursday. A conference is scheduled in that case for Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar in California.
Lee Gelernt, one of the ACLU lawyers who is challenging the asylum rule, said in a telephone interview that declining numbers of asylum seekers are not necessarily a sign of success. Instead, he said, advocates are concerned that the administration is turning away migrants to countries that do not have the capacity to provide them refuge — and where the migrants could face danger.
Human-rights organizations and the U.S. State Department have published reports documenting how migrants in Mexico have been targeted by criminal organizations for kidnapping, extortion, and other violent crimes, for instance.
“There’s this notion that you can judge the efficacy of an asylum system by how many people don’t show up at the border,” Gelernt said. “If people are in danger, you cannot tell them to stay away.”
Along the border Monday afternoon in El Paso, the crowds of migrants gathering along the fence and camping on the streets were mostly gone.
The dusty strip of land where hundreds waited to be allowed into the United States through two border wall gates was deserted, strewn with empty water bottles, pizza boxes and discarded blankets.
Downtown around Sacred Heart Church, a handful of families with young children remained on the sidewalk. Will Rodriguez, a 31-year-old Venezuelan, said he crossed into El Paso long before Title 42 was supposed to end.
“They’ve already deported many,” he said.
Rodriguez said he has a U.S. court date to plead his asylum claim on Dec. 18, 2024. He’s now trying to get authorization to work legally while he waits.
“Many of us that are coming over are just wanting to work,” Rodriguez said. “Some of us are professionals. We aren’t thieves, we aren’t violent thugs. Just give us an opportunity.”
Imelda Maynard, legal director of the Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services in El Paso, said legal aid groups are struggling to contact asylum seekers in government custody before authorities deport them.
“We do not currently have access to CBP processing centers, so I am not sure how many people are currently detained,” Maynard said.
The new asylum restrictions and Biden’s deportations to Mexico remain controversial within the Democratic Party. As a candidate for president, Biden attacked Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy and immediately took steps to halt it when he took office.
When The Post reported in February that the administration was discussing a deal to begin large-scale deportations of non-Mexicans to Mexico after Title 42 lifted, the president and senior officials denied the report as “false.” Biden called the report “completely wrong” in an interview with the Telemundo Network.
Nuñez-Neto told reporters that since Friday, “hundreds of noncitizens, including Venezuelans, Cubans and Nicaraguans have already been returned to Mexico” under the terms of the accord.
Hinojosa reported from El Paso
