/ Modified jan 26, 2022 3:53 p.m.

CBP says more than 178K apprehensions occurred along border in December

The agency says more than 78,000 people apprehended in December were sent back under Title 42.

360 border patrol vehicle fence File image of a Border Patrol vehicle on patrol along the Arizona-Mexico border.
AZPM Staff

Agents with Customs and Border Protection encountered more than 178,000 people along the southwest border in December, according to agency data released this week. Of those encounters, some 40,000 were people who were on at least their second crossing in a year.

The number of people trying to cross multiple times has been on the rise since the pandemic-era protocol Title 42 took hold in 2020.

The policy allows Border Patrol agents to quickly turn away migrants back to Mexico on public health grounds. Borderwide, the agency says more than 78,000 people apprehended in December were sent back under Title 42.

Chelsea Sachau, with the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, runs a legal clinic for asylum seekers in Nogales.

She estimates her team sees new people sent back there everyday. She says others try to claim asylum at the port of entry and are simply turned away.

"Maybe they weren’t physically expelled under Title 42, but they are still displaced by understanding that they cannot access the asylum process through a U.S. port of entry," she said.

Sachau says without that pathway to asylum ports of entry, more migrants are driven to make dangerous journeys through Arizona’s desert borderland.

Fronteras Desk
Fronteras Desk is a KJZZ project covering important stories in an expanse stretching from Northern Arizona deep into northwestern Mexico.
By posting comments, you agree to our
AZPM encourages comments, but comments that contain profanity, unrelated information, threats, libel, defamatory statements, obscenities, pornography or that violate the law are not allowed. Comments that promote commercial products or services are not allowed. Comments in violation of this policy will be removed. Continued posting of comments that violate this policy will result in the commenter being banned from the site.

By submitting your comments, you hereby give AZPM the right to post your comments and potentially use them in any other form of media operated by this institution.
AZPM is a service of the University of Arizona and our broadcast stations are licensed to the Arizona Board of Regents who hold the trademarks for Arizona Public Media and AZPM. We respectfully acknowledge the University of Arizona is on the land and territories of Indigenous peoples.
The University of Arizona