EP Sector: Apprehension of migrant minors increases 333%; family units increase by 1,670%

Newly released figures by Customs and Border Protection show a staggering increase in the amount of migrants detained by Border Patrol agents.

As of the end of March for fiscal year 2019, Border Patrol agents in the El Paso sector have apprehended 7,565 unaccompanied migrant children. That is a 333 percent increase from the 1,746 unaccompanied migrant children apprehended during the same time period in fiscal year 2018.

When it comes to family units, Border Patrol agents in the El Paso sector have apprehended 53,565 families units. That is a 1,670 percent increase from the 3,027 family units detained during the same time period in fiscal year 2018.

The only sector in the Southwestern U.S. border with more apprehensions than El Paso is the Rio Grande Sector.

On Tuesday alone, agents in the El Paso sector arrested nearly 1,100 migrants, including 424 who crossed in Sunland Park, New Mexico, according to Border Patrol spokesman Ramiro Cordero.

The situation has drawn agents away from their traditional duties of patrolling the border and forced Immigration and Customs Enforcement to refuse to hold immigrants because it does not have enough detention space.

Before the immigrants are handed over to ICE or released, the Border Patrol must process them, and the agency is struggling to keep up.

In recent weeks, immigrants have been forced to sleep in hastily constructed tents on top of gravel under a bridge in El Paso. Critics decried the conditions as inhumane and corroborated accounts of migrants who said that they were held too long and did not have access to bedding while sleeping in the cold.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CONTRIBUTED TO THIS ARTICLE