Border & Immigration

Detentions At San Diego Border On the Rise

By City News Service

Contributors: Matt Hoffman / Health Reporter, Roland Lizarondo / Video Journalist

Published November 1, 2019 at 12:05 PM PDT

This story was published more than 5 years ago.

Tim Sutherland, director of Air and Marine Operations for California, speaking at the press conference about the increase in detentions at the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego on Nov. 1, 2019, as Kathleen Scudder, acting chief Patrol Agent for the San Diego Sector, and Pete Flores, director of field operations for San Diego,
look on. — Tim Sutherland, director of Air and Marine Operations for California, speaking at the press conference about the increase in detentions at the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego on Nov. 1, 2019, as Kathleen Scudder, acting chief Patrol Agent for the San Diego Sector, and Pete Flores, director of field operations for San Diego, look on.

The San Diego sector of the U.S. Border Patrol announced Friday that it stopped more than 58,000 people for attempting to enter the country unauthorized during a 12-month period between 2018 and 2019.

The Border Patrol said it prevented 58,049 people from entering the United States without a visa between Oct. 1, 2018, and Sept. 30, 2019.

In the previous fiscal year, between Oct. 1, 2017, and Sept. 30 2018, 38,591 people were arrested for attempting unauthorized entry in the San Diego sector of the U.S.-Mexico border, according to the same Border Patrol press release.

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VIDEO: Detentions At San Diego Border On the Rise

Unaccompanied children and families represent a significant portion of people detained by the agency. According to the release, 3,335 unaccompanied children were processed in 2018-19 compared to 2,491 in 2017-18. Agents processed 16,174 families in 2018-19, an increase from 4,408 in 2017-18.

Many of the migrants detained over the past year are not from Mexico. According to the Border Patrol, 27,255 "people from countries other than Mexico" were detained in 2018-19, a record. In 2017-18, 11,509 "people from countries other than Mexico" were detained.

An uptick in violent crime in Central American countries, such as Honduras and El Salvador, is reportedly a significant cause of increased migration to the U.S.-Mexico border.