The illegal migration of people into the United States across the Mexico-United States border has caused an ongoing migrant crisis. U.S. presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump both referred to surges in migrants at the border as a "crisis" during their tenure. Following a decline in migrants crossing the border during the first Trump administration, illegal border crossings surged during the Biden administration, with over 7.2 million migrants encountered between January 2021 and January 2024, not counting gotaways. Experts have attributed the increase in attempted crossings to pent-up demand, changes in global migration patterns, a change of perceptions by migrants about the ease of crossing, and incentives for migrants to try to cross again after Title 42 expulsions. The number of migrants sent back increased as a result, though the percentage sent back decreased. Border apprehensions fell back to 2020 levels in mid-2024.
The migrants, who are mostly of Guatemalan, Salvadoran, Honduran, and Venezuelan citizenship, are reported to be escaping economic hardship, gang violence and environmental disaster in their home countries and seeking asylum in the United States. Unlike the demographic of migrants in the preceding years, an increasing proportion of current migrants arriving at the Mexico–US border are children, including unaccompanied children and from countries outside Latin America.
Background The agents of the US Border Patrol (USBP), a federal law enforcement agency, are tasked with deterring, detecting, and apprehending any person crossing into the US illegally at any point not designated as a port of entry by the US attorney general. Additionally, agents interdict and seize contraband smuggled into the US through non-ports of entry. USBP agents are both immigration and customs officials. Border security and immigration policy has been a wedge issue in politics for a long time. In 1996, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act was passed, which expedited the deportation of immigrants who were detained crossing the border. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, more aggressive immigration laws were implemented, which gave more power to the USBP.
Violence is a leading cause of immigration north to the United States. According to the GAO, the ATF found that 70% of firearms recovered and submitted for tracing in Mexico from 2014 through 2018 were "U.S. sourced". An estimated 200,000 to 500,000 weapons smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border every year. In El Salvador 49% of the illegal weapons come from the United States. In Honduras 45% of guns recovered at crime scenes traced to the United States. In 2021, the Mexican government sued U.S. gun makers seeking to hold them liable for harms inflicted by Mexican drug cartels in the ongoing drug war.
American interference in Latin America (including through regime change) has also contributed to instability that has caused emigration.
Deaths along the border The International Organization for Migration (IOM) documented 686 deaths and disappearances of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in 2022, making it the deadliest land route for migrants worldwide. This is a stark surge compared to when the USBP reported 294 migrant deaths in the fiscal year 2017 (ending September 30, 2017), which was lower than in 2016 (321), and any year during the period 2003–2014. Some of the leading causes are exposure (including heat stroke, dehydration, and hyperthermia). Many recent deaths and disappearances have been linked to the record-breaking heat and, therefore, hazardous crossing conditions of the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts. However, rates of migrant deaths and disappearances have only increased in recent years.
According to the estimates by the group Border Angels, about 10,000 people have died in their attempt to cross the border since 1994. However, the statistics mentioned above reflect only known deaths and do not include estimates for those who have never been found. Some migrant deaths may go unreported even when they are brought to the attention of officials. In a recent interaction between WOLA and Border Patrol officials, the agency claims to have found 640 deceased migrants between October 2022 and August 2023. Yet, this still reflects an undercount. There have been minimal efforts from local law enforcement agencies to keep accurate and robust tracking of migrant deaths. Additionally, there is inadequate infrastructure to identify and return remains to families.
Timeline
Obama administration (2009–2017)
In 2014, the US declared a crisis at the border due to an influx of unaccompanied minors and women making their way through checkpoints. The US southern border had long struggled with implementing policies that aim to prevent immigration-related tragedies. With a decline in unlawful immigration from Mexico, the crisis predominantly concerned increased immigration from the Northern Triangle of Central America (NTCA), encompassing Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Academics claimed the immigration crisis was a result of US interventions in Central America during the Cold War, with high amounts of political instability, violent crime, and poverty stemming from the US's support of authoritarian regimes.
Proposed legislative remedies
In June 2013, the Senate approved the most comprehensive immigration overhaul bill since 1986. Negotiated by a bipartisan group of eight senators, fourteen Republicans joined all Democrats in voting for the measure; President Obama promised to sign it. Most conservative Republicans opposed the bill and said it would be dead on arrival in the House. The bill provided for increased border security, including 20,000 new border patrol officers, completion of 700 miles of border fencing, and new border surveillance equipment. The bill also provided a "path to citizenship" for some eleven million undocumented immigrants already living in the country. Gallup polling found the overhaul was broadly supported by both Democrats and Republicans. Speaker John Boehner refused to consider the bill in the House, promising "to do our own bill." No immigration reform bill emerged.
Legacy
The immigration legacy of the Obama Administration is marked by complexity. While it was known for its stringent enforcement of immigration laws, resulting in the deportation of a significant number of migrants, the establishment of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) stands out. This initiative has protected from deportation over 750,000 individuals who were brought to the U.S. as children. Though no permanent solution was put in place, DACA was a success, allowing individuals within the program to pursue higher education.
First Trump administration (2017–2021)
In January 2019, Trump introduced the Migrant Protection Protocols (also known as "Remain in Mexico"), which forced asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their US immigration hearings. About 70,000 people were returned to Mexico as a result. The Trump administration asked migrants to take a number at the border and to wait until they are called for a chance to have their asylum cases heard. As a result, in September 2019, the US immigration court faced over one million waiting for their cases to be heard, matching the highest backlog seen in the US.
In September 2019, the US Supreme Court allowed a new ruling to take effect that could curtail most asylum applications at the border. The ruling would demand that most asylum seekers who pass through another country first will be ineligible for asylum at the US's southern border. Mark A. Morgan, acting commissioner of the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), stated the ruling was set to take effect the week of October 8, 2019.
In several places, dangers including kidnapping, murder, and sexual assault threatened thousands of Central American migrants who had been clustered in Mexican border cities like Matamoros, Tamaulipas for months, blocked from seeking asylum in the US because of new restriction policies. The US government and United Nations provided free transportation to return refugees to their homes in Central America, but many others who were stuck in Matamoros said that desperation had led them to consider treacherous and potentially life-threatening methods of illegal entry—crossing the river, climbing into tractor-trailers driven by human smugglers, or both. In 2019, as the USBP reported, the number of migrants caught hiding in tractor-trailers along the border had risen by 40 percent that year.
In March 2020, Trump instituted Title 42, which allowed U.S. authorities to swiftly expel migrants, including asylum seekers, at the border. Between its implementation and January 2021, nearly 400,000 people were expelled through Title 42. Encounters had fallen by about half in fiscal 2020, when the border was closed during the COVID pandemic, following a surge in encounters in fiscal 2019.
On January 16, 2021, Guatemala and Mexico deployed the military to their borders, in an attempt to stop a migrant caravan from transiting through their countries on the way to the US.
Biden administration (2021–2025) On his first day in office, Biden halted the construction of the Mexico–United States border wall, ending the national emergency declared by the Trump administration on February 1, 2019. He also suspended Trump's "Remain in Mexico" policy, and while a court initially blocked its cancellation, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld it on June 30, 2022.
Early during Biden's tenure, a surge in migrants at the US border stirred controversy. According to a 2021 Politico report, Republicans expected prior to Joe Biden taking office that there would be a border surge at the start of 2021 (due to seasonal patterns and regional crises) and planned to make it a central issue in the lead-up to the 2022 midterm elections. The USBP reported 5,858 encounters with unaccompanied children in January 2021 and 9,457 in February 2021. This was the largest percentage increase month-to-month since CBP began tracking the data point in 2010.
On February 21, 2021, a group of migrants was found massacred in northern Mexico. A few months later, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported that various colored bracelets with writing on them were being used as a method to track a migrant's payment status to their coyote and drug cartels that control various parts of Mexico. The bracelets reportedly are used for tracking status of protection from cartel actions such as death, kidnapping, and the right to be in cartel controlled territory or to cross the border into the US.
On March 18, 2021, amid a rise in migrants entering the US from Mexico, Biden told migrants, "Don't come over." He said that the US was arranging a plan for migrants to apply for asylum in place, without leaving their original locations, and that migrant adults would be continue to be sent back under Title 42. Biden earlier announced that his administration would not deport unaccompanied migrant children; the rise in arrivals of such children exceeded the capacity of facilities meant to shelter them (before they were sent to sponsors), leading the Biden administration in March to direct the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help manage these children, but facilities are being overwhelmed because of the numbers of adults and children coming into the country.