WASHINGTON _ Apprehensions of people illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border rose 30 percent in the last fiscal year and the number of migrants who unlawfully entered the U.S. with a family member spiked in September as President Donald Trump cast immigration as a crisis.
U.S. officials apprehended 396,579 people between ports of entry on the southwest border between October 2017 and the end of September, the Customs and Border Patrol reported Tuesday. That's up from 303,916 border apprehensions in fiscal 2017, Trump's first year in office.
The number fluctuates greatly from year to year, however, and border crossings were down from 408,870 in fiscal 2016, the last year of Barack Obama's presidency. Apprehensions at the southwest border regularly exceeded 1 million a year under President George W. Bush.
More families are illegally crossing together, the border patrol reported. In September, 16,658 people were caught crossing with at least one other family member, up from just under 13,000 in August and 4,200 in September 2017.
The data indicating a rise in illegal migration was released as Trump has ratcheted up his rhetoric against immigrants ahead of next month's midterm elections. The timing of the announcement is consistent with the border patrol's past practices.
Trump has expressed outrage about a group of several thousand migrants he's called a "caravan" that formed in Honduras and is slowly making its way north. The group is still near Mexico's border with Guatemala.
Trump said Monday that he will cut U.S. aid to the three Central American countries that are home to most of the migrants who cross the southern border _ El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. It's an effort to punish the governments for their citizens' migrations that may backfire. Much of the money funds counter-narcotics, law enforcement and anti-poverty programs that Trump's critics say can help make the countries more desirable places to live.
