U.S.-Mexico border arrests exceed 50,000 for 3rd month in a row

A person looks from the Mexico side of the border at the U.S.

(Image credit: John Moore/Getty Images)

published 7 June 2018

In May, Border Patrol agents arrested close to 2,000 more immigrants trying to illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border compared to April, per statistics released by the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday.

Also up is the number of unaccompanied children — in April, 4,302 crossed illegally, while 6,405 did so in May. In March, April, and May, more than 50,000 immigrants attempted to enter the U.S. at the southern border each month. DHS spokesperson Tyler Q. Houlton said the number of people trying to cross remains high, but shows "that while the Trump administration is restoring the rule of law ... no one expects to reverse years of political action overnight or in a month."

David Leopold, former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, disagrees, telling NBC News it appears President Trump's tough talk regarding the border isn't scaring people away. "I think it's desperation," he said. "They think it's better to spend time in detention than face what they're facing in the Triangle." The Triangle refers to the countries of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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