Migrants keep crossing despite risks and Border Patrol apprehensions

Newly released data show that migrants were stopped 180,034 times along the U.S. southern border last month — nearly eight times the total during May 2020 and among the highest monthly totals in recent years.

That brought total apprehensions for the year to 711,784, nearly five times the total during the same period last year, though direct comparisons are difficult because of a policy implemented early in the pandemic that dramatically increased the number of people who have been caught multiple times.

Since March 2020, the government has summarily expelled migrants to Mexico using an obscure 1944 public health law; many immediately try crossing again.

Kaled Medrano Henriquez, 8, offers his mother, Jaqueline Medrano Henriquez, 27, water after crossing the border and waiting to be bused by U.S. Border Patrol in La Joya, Texas.

(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

The recent increase in crossings has come at a tragic price: Between October and the end of April, at least 148 migrants have died along the border, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

In the Rio Grande Valley, where there were 50,793 apprehensions last month — up from 3,698 in May 2020 — Border Patrol agents respond to about one fatality a week.

Most of the migrants drowned in the river and nearby canals or got lost on ranches and died of exposure and dehydration as they attempted to travel deeper into Texas, Border Patrol agents said.

Migrants wait to be loaded on a bus to be processed by the Border Patrol in La Joya, Texas.

(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

Salvadoran migrants Kelyn Castro and son Jose Anderson Castro, 6, await processing in La Joya, Texas.

(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

From left, Hondurans Antonio Herrera, 42, Oney Figueroa Asencio, 22, and Eduardo Mejia, 34, and Daniel Rivas, 28, of Mexico are detained after crossing illegally into the U.S. in McAllen, Texas.

(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

A member of the U.S. Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector looks for migrants who crossed from Mexico illegally in Mission, Texas.

(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

A group of migrants, one from Mexico and nine from Central America are caught by the U.S. Border Patrol, Rio Grande Valley Sector, after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally in McAllen, Texas.

(Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times)

A group of migrants after being apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector.

(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

A group of migrants are detained by the Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally on June 2, 2021, in McAllen, Texas.

(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

Eduardo Mejia, 34, from left, Oney Figueroa Asencio, 22, and Antonio Herrera, 42, all from Honduras, are caught by the Border Patrol in McAllen, Texas, after crossing illegally from Mexico.

(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

Mud caked migrants collapse after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in McAllen, Texas.

(Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times)

More visual journalism from the photography staff of the Los Angeles Times