Chapel Hill Review

A record number of arrests at the border affects more states than those that share a border with Mexico.

North Carolina has 296,000 undocumented persons living within its borders, according to migrationpolicy.org. More than three quarters of them, 228,000, have immigrated illegally from Latin American countries. 

That parallels a trend showing a growing number of arrests at the southern border of the nation. A recent Wall Street Journal article reports that U.S. Border Patrol agents made 1.9 million arrests at the southern border in the year 2021. New data proves this record-high number is a reflection of the rising number of attempted crossings. 

In Fiscal Year 2019 (Oct. 1, 2018, to Sept. 30, 2019), Border Patrol agents reportedly made 851,508 arrests at the southern border, the Wall Street Journal reported. A reported 1.66 million arrests were made in Fiscal Year 2021. That represents nearly a 95% increase in arrests over a two-year span. 

As the number continues to increase, so is the reported frustration among border agents, former Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott told the Wall Street Journal. 

The border security question has been a hot-button political concern, and Republican attorneys recently filed a lawsuit against the Biden Administration. As the case has made its way through the court system, data has been disclosed showing that only 20% (402,000 of 1.9 million) of the arrested migrants were “released into the U.S. to await hearings on their asylum applications,” down from 56% during a surge of border crossings before the pandemic. 

The lawsuit aimed to force the Biden Administration to abide by the “Remain in Mexico” policy. That program started in 2019 and requires those arrested to be shipped south of the border to await their U.S. hearing. The Wall Street Journal cited a Homeland Security official who said the Biden Administration has limited the number of arrested who have been released into the U.S. to await adjudication of their cases through a public-health law called Title 42, rather than the Remain in Mexico order.

In other border news specific to North Carolina, Gov. Roy Cooper had sent three members of the National Guard to help secure border, but he recalled those guardsmen in June 2018 because of former President Donald Trump’s “zero-tolerance” approach to illegal immigration.

"The cruel policy of tearing children away from their parents requires a strong response, and I am recalling the three members of the North Carolina National Guard from the border," Cooper tweeted in June 2018, according to The Hill.