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US arrested record number of children at Mexican border last month

A Guatemalan refugee attempts to cross the US-Mexico border, Sunland Park, New Mexico, July 22, 2021. (Photo by AFP)

US border patrols have possibly arrested a record number of refugee children in July as the administration of US President Joe Biden continues to apply cruel Trump-era anti-migration policy.

More than 19,000 unaccompanied children were picked up on the crossing points along the Mexico-US border in July, exceeding the previous high of 18,877 in March, according to David Shahoulian, assistant secretary for border and immigration policy at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Shahoulian also said that the number of refugee families likely hit its second-highest number last month at an estimated 80,000, according to The Hill.

The number of refugees who came in families likely reached its second-highest total on record, a US official said Monday, citing preliminary government figures.

The sharp rise has been unexpected because border crossings are typically less during the extremely hot— and sometimes fatal — summertime.

There were about 210,000 reports of border crossings last month, which was more than the 188,829 instances reported in June and the highest number recorded in more than two decades.

Most of the reports came from the Border Patrol’s Del Rio and Rio Grande Valley regions located in south Texas.

Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) renewed the Trump-era policy known as Title 42 despite growing pressure from rights groups of the "inhumane" nature of the policy.

DHS said it would continue carrying out the ban for single adults and families; however, unaccompanied refugee children are exempt from the policy.

The unaccompanied children are arrested at the border and held in jail-like detention centers where they undergo a process to be relocated to homes in the US.


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