Migrants wait to be processed by border patrol outside of Lukeville, Arizona, on Dec. 5, 2023.The number of migrants apprehended in Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector last week was just over 9,000, which is less than half what it was a month before, when the sector was seeing record highs.
Ariel Ruiz Soto with the Migration Policy Institute says following talks in December with U.S. officials, Mexico increased removal flights of Venezuelan migrants as well as checkpoints on the border with Guatemala and in the interior.
“I think it’s a mix that there is a perception that there is additional US enforcement, some concrete even if targeted and small actions by the Mexican government, and the travel holidays,” he said.
Ruiz Soto says the US has also recently increased removal flights to Venezuela and other parts of Central and South America.
Migrant street releases have stopped in both Santa Cruz and Cochise counties, though officials expect that to be a temporary pause. Casa Alitas in Tucson has continued to serve on average more than 900 migrants daily.
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