By Ted Hesson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The number of migrants caught illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border fell on Friday, a senior U.S. border official told Reuters. Biden The government’s policies discouraged some illegal immigration.
U.S. Border Patrol apprehended about 3,100 people crossing the border illegally, down about 20% from previous days, the official said, requesting anonymity to discuss preliminary figures.
“It is too early to say this is a definitive trend,” the official said. “But I think it’s indicative of a possible early success.”
Immigration has become a top issue for Americans in the months before the Nov. 5 elections that will decide control of the White House and Congress. President Joe Biden, a Democrat seeking another term, faces Republican Donald Trump – an immigration hardliner – in a rematch of the 2020 election.
Biden took office in 2021 promising to reverse many of Trump’s restrictive immigration policies, but he has hardened his position in light of record arrests of migrants at the border.
Biden introduced a sweeping policy on Wednesday that would generally ban migrants who cross the US-Mexico border illegally from seeking asylum. The asylum ban has exceptions for unaccompanied minors, people facing serious medical or safety risks, and victims of human trafficking.
The new policy aims to maximize the number of migrants placed in “expedited removal,” an accelerated deportation process. More than 2,000 people a day have been accelerated since Wednesday, more than double the previous figure, the U.S. official said.
Questions still remain about whether border crossings will remain low enough to process people quickly and whether U.S. authorities have the capacity to achieve their goals.
The American Civil Liberties Union has vowed to sue to stop the measure, which resembles Trump-era curbs on asylum.
(Reporting by Ted Hesson in Washington; Editing by Mica Rosenberg and Daniel Wallis)
