The rise in border encounters in Southern Arizona continued in April, but at a slower pace than in recent months, according to new federal data.
The Border Patrolβs Tucson Sector saw about 20,200 border encounters in April, a slight increase from about 19,900 in March, according to Customs and Border Protection statistics released Tuesday evening. The agencyβs Yuma Sector saw about 13,600 encounters in April, up from about 11,900 in March.
Border Patrol agents along the entire U.S.-Mexico border reported about 173,500 encounters in April, up from 169,200 in March. The busiest sector was the Rio Grande Valley in southeastern Texas, where agents reported about 60,800 encounters in April, down from 62,700 in March.
Border encounters in the Tucson Sector started rising in April 2020 and spiked in recent months. Biden administration officials say the increase is due to a seasonal rise in migration, along with hurricanes, corruption and other factors in Central American countries. Critics of the Biden administration attribute the increase to President Biden ending Trump-era policies, including the Migrant Protection Protocols that forced asylum seekers to wait for months or years in Mexican border towns before they could talk with U.S. immigration officials.
Biden also paused construction of the 30-foot-tall steel border wall in January, before canceling wall contracts funded by the military two weeks ago, including 11 contracts that would have added about 20 miles to the roughly 225 miles of wall built in Arizona, according to the Army Corps of Engineers.
Biden has continued several Trump-era policies, such as working with the Mexican government to block migrants from reaching the U.S.-Mexico border. Biden also continues to use Title 42, a pandemic public-health order put in place by the Trump administration in March 2020. That order allows agents to expel migrants within hours of encountering them.
The widespread use of Title 42, including nearly 110,000 times in April, led to a much higher rate of repeat border-crossing attempts than in recent years.
Migrants from Mexico and Guatemala made up nearly 90% of border encounters in the Tucson Sector in April, according to CBP data. The most common nationalities of migrants encountered in the Yuma Sector were Cuban, Brazilian and Ecuadorian, according to the sectorβs public affairs office.
As has been the case in recent months, most of the encounters in the Border Patrolβs Tucson Sector in April involved adult migrants traveling without children.
Agents in the Tucson sector reported about 17,000 single adults in April, up from 15,600 in March. Yuma sector agents saw about 6,100 single adults in April, compared to 5,900 in March.
Border Patrol agents along the entire border saw about 108,300 single adults, up from 97,000 in March. The Rio Grande Valley Sector saw about 21,200 single adults in April, up from 17,200 in March.
For the first time since December, agents in the Tucson and Yuma sectors encountered fewer unaccompanied children than in the previous month.
Tucson sector agents encountered about 1,900 unaccompanied children in April, down from about 2,300 in March. Yuma Sector agents encountered about 710 unaccompanied children in April, down slightly from about 750 in March.
Along the entire border, agents encountered about 16,900 unaccompanied children in April, down from 18,700 in March. In the Rio Grande Valley, agents encountered about 9,200 unaccompanied children in April, down from 9,800 in March.
In terms of migrants traveling as families, Tucson Sector agents saw about 1,300 family members in April, down from nearly 2,000 in March. Yuma Sector agents reported about 6,800 family members in April, up from about 5,300 in March.
The next round of CBP data will come out in the first or second week of June.
