A report released by the government of Mexico suggests the immigration crisis may be worse than originally anticipated.
In addition to citizens from Mexico illegally crossing the border, immigrants from around the world have been traversing the country in an attempt to break through the United States border, according to Breitbart. According to figures released this week by the Mexican government, not all illegal border crossers are from their own nation.
300,000 Migrants Originating Elsewhere
Since the start of 2019, a staggering number of individuals have successfully crossed into the United States illegally, bypassing proper channels and evading detection by overworked and stressed border personnel. According to the latest figures from Mexico, a whopping 300,000 of these individuals were simply passing through using the nation as a gateway to the United States.
That 300,000 figure is not an annual one; it covers just the past 4 months. The number represents known migrants who used Mexico as a gateway to illegal entry into the United States, but who were not Mexican citizens. If this additional stream of illegal immigrants continues at this rate, over a million migrants will pass through Mexico in 2019 alone.
Where are These Migrants Coming From?
They are not citizens of Mexico — so where are these thousands of illegal aliens coming from? According to the Mexican officials, the migrants come from central America, Asia and Africa. There are small numbers of individuals from other nations, including Cuba, making the trek to the United States via Mexico as well. Many of these migrants have banded together into caravans; according to Mexico’s Interior Secretary Olga Sanchez Cordero, the purpose of this movement is to gain illegal entry into the United States.
“It’s estimated that during the first three months of the year, more than 300,000 migrants have transited through Mexico to enter the United States illegally,” Sanchez Cordero says. “There’s a change in the flow of migrants who are entering our country.”
The figures from Mexico are held up by border agents and some of these migrants have been turned back at manned, walled sections of the border. Others successfully make the journey across the border into the United States, either taking advantage of spots with sparse, overworked personnel or without a strong physical barrier to entry.
According to the border patrol, over 300,000 people were denied illegal entry into the United States in the past several months; many of these were from nations outside of Mexico who were simply using the country as a way to enter the United States. There is no way of knowing how many enter the United States without detection; only those who successfully make it into the country and who are then detained — and those who were turned back — are counted.