US-Mexico border crossing arrests reach record highs: Reports
Al JazeeraThe Biden administration is facing growing criticism for its treatment of migrants seeking protection at its border. US authorities reportedly detained 1.7 million migrants trying to cross the US-Mexico border this fiscal year – marking an all-time high and highlighting the deepening political and humanitarian challenges the Biden administration is facing on immigration. The numbers emerged amid increasing pressure on the administration of President Joe Biden over his handling of the growing number of migrants fleeing political instability, poverty and climate change making their way to the US’s southern border with Mexico. In a stark example of the developments at the border, last month, nearly 15,000 mostly Haitian asylum seekers crossed the Rio Grande River from Mexico and set up a makeshift camp under an international bridge in Del Rio, Texas hoping to claim asylum. Meanwhile, a federal court has ordered the Biden administration to reinstate another Trump-era policy known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, or Remain in Mexico, a programme that forced thousands of asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for US immigration court hearings.