(Washington) The number of people trying to cross the Mexico-United States border illegally has plummeted since new immigration rules went into effect last week, a U.S. official said Wednesday.
Border police have recorded less than 4,000 apprehensions and deportations of migrants on each of the past two days, said Blas Nunez Neto, of the Ministry of Homeland Security.
There were, he said, 10,100 a day during the week before the lifting of “Title 42”, a measure adopted during the pandemic to lock down the country.
This policy was replaced on Friday by a new system, including restrictions on the right to asylum.
Authorities sought to reduce the number of migrants trying to enter the country from Mexico – often more than 200,000 a month last year – which has earned President Joe Biden intense criticism from Republicans.
The new rules therefore seem to fulfill their dissuasive role, judged Blas Nunez Neto.
The arrival of migrants from South and Central America to the US-Mexico border also appears to be slowing down, the official added.
The “CBP One” application, designed to centralize requests for appointments with American immigration, has received “tens of thousands”, and more than 5,000 have been “processed” since May 12, a-t -he says.
Blas Nunez Neto, however, recalled that it was “too early to draw definitive conclusions from these initial indications”.