Nearly 3,000 Ukrainians crossed the Southwest U.S. border in an attempt to flee their country to the United States, according to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Mayorkas, who has come under fire for his absolutely abysmal handling of the border crisis under President Joe Biden, told CBS that numbers might signal an incoming wave of Ukrainian migrants at the southern border, adding to the projected surge of illegal immigration as the Biden administration allows the Trump-era Title 42 program to expire.
Just in — DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas tells @NorahODonnell that close to 3,000 Ukrainians were processed along the southern border just last week as part of a sharp increase in Ukrainians flying to Mexico to escape the war and seek asylum in the U.S.pic.twitter.com/QPSzXfbj8M
— Camilo Montoya-Galvez (@camiloreports) April 6, 2022
The program had mandated that many migrants be sent back to Mexico to await the adjudication of their immigration case. The administration had tried to halt the program last year, but was ordered to let it stand by a judge after being sued by several states.
Nearly a million illegal aliens have already been caught at the Southwest U.S. border so far this fiscal year, which began on October 1 – meaning we’re only about five months in. U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports that 838,685 illegal aliens were apprehended between October 1 and February 28, with March’s numbers still to be reported. The vast majority of those - 579,873, or about 70% - were single adults, with the remaining 30% being family units or children.