Migrant detentions at border in May highest since 2007

HOUSTON — The U.S. Border Patrol’s apprehensions of migrants at the border with Mexico hit their highest level in more than a decade in May, as officials warned they don’t have the money and resources to care for the surge of parents and children entering the country.

Agents made 132,887 apprehensions in May, the first time that apprehensions have topped 100,000 since April 2007. It set a record with 84,542 adults and children apprehended. Another 11,507 were children traveling alone, and 36,838 were single adults.

Those numbers underpin the problems across the border. Photos of families waiting in jam-packed cells and in outdoor enclosures have sparked outrage. Six children have died in the last year after being detained by border agents.

Government inspectors last week announced they found one 125-person facility in El Paso, Texas, to have had 700 people one day and 900 another day. They were packed in so tightly that some resorted to standing on toilets.

When the Border Patrol last made 100,000 or more apprehensions monthly, it was primarily detaining adults from Mexico trying to sneak past agents and enter the U.S. undetected.

Now, most border crossers are from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, as those countries have been wracked by gangs, violence, and poverty. Many are expected to eventually request asylum. After crossing the border, they typically stop and wait for agents to pick them up.