Washington. The number of unaccompanied minors who crossed the border between Mexico and the United States in the month of February increased 37%, the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported yesterday.
US authorities counted 12,011 unaccompanied children at the southern border during the month of February, compared to 8,760 in January, according to data released by CBP.
At the end of last week, the United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) decided that the health regulation known as Title 42, which allows migrants to be expelled, can no longer be applied to unaccompanied minors, although it is still in force for adults and families.
The rule, imposed by former Republican President Donald Trump, allows migrants to be expelled due to the pandemic on the grounds that they may be carriers of Covid-19.
Total detainees also increased in February
In total, last February the US immigration authorities detained 164,973 people who crossed the southwest land border, which meant an increase of 7% compared to January.
Of these, 91,513, that is, 55%, were eligible to be expelled under Title 42, while 73,460 fell under Title 8, that is, the one applicable to people who aspire to enter legally, due to their refugee status or other reasons. , but lack the necessary documentation or fall outside the quotas.
The vast majority of people crossing the border come from Mexico and Central America, but those from Ukraine, a country under fire since Russia launched a military offensive on February 24 to invade it, have increased.
It was reported that 1,147 Ukrainians entered in February, almost twice as many as in the same period in 2021 (585), and 2,025 Russians, compared to 720 in the same month last year.
Still, according to a CBP official who requested anonymity, “the overall percentage of intercepted Russian and Ukrainian immigrants is low, compared to other countries of origin” and since 2019 there has been “an average in both cases of around 1 percent”.
The nationals of the two countries have arrived in recent days mostly at the San Ysidro border crossing, between Tijuana and San Diego, California, in search of refugee status.
More than 8,600 Russians applied for asylum at the Mexican border between August 2021 and January 2022, compared to 249 in the same period a year earlier.