Mexico finds nearly 2,000 irregular migrants in one day

FILE PHOTO: Asylum seekers, under the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) program, walk across the Paso del Norte international border bridge from the Mexican side to continue their asylum request in the United States, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico June 18, 2021. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez

Mexico identified in one day nearly 2,000 migrants in the country irregularly, the government said on Saturday.

Control operations by the National Migration Institute (INM)on Friday turned up 1,957 migrants from different countries, the government statement said.

The majority, 532 migrants, were identified in the state of Oaxaca, with 134 reported in Puebla and 86 in Veracruz. The rest were found in other areas of the country.

The statement did not specify whether the migrants were detained or where they were sent.

Mexico's Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard warned this week that the United States needs to invest more heavily in Central America if it hopes to slow record levels of northbound migration

Record numbers of migrants have passed through Mexico this year toward the U.S. border, fleeing violence and economic crises stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.

(Reporting by Cassandra Garrison; editing by Jonathan Oatis)