The old model of illegal immigration along the southern border was shattered in 2021, according to data released by the Department of Homeland Security this week that shows the demographics of the typical border jumper have been completely rewritten.
Mexicans, who for decades represented the overwhelming number of illegal immigrants, dropped to 28% of the flow, their lowest share “in recorded history,” according to Customs and Border Protection. Meanwhile, the number of women and girls jumping the border soared to nearly 400,000, more than doubling the average in recent years.
The figures were released in a belated fiscal 2021 data dump from Customs and Border Protection, which included a warning that the shifting demographics are making jobs more challenging for immigration agents.
“This trend is important because the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does not currently have agreements to electronically verify nationality with these different countries of origin, making removing or expelling their nationals more resource-intensive and time-consuming,” CBP said in its year-end analysis.
Records for overall illegal activity at the border in 2021 have been apparent for months, but the new data shows CBP’s struggle to keep up with the changes.
Migrants from the Central American countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador — known as the Northern Triangle — accounted for 44% of the illegal flow.
The remaining 28% came from farther afield outside Mexico. The previous record was 14%, CBP said.
The agency reported nabbing 388,249 women and girls, up 159% compared with the average from 2014 to 2019.
“The rising number of women and the shift from single adults to children and family units
raise different processing needs and policy responses,” the agency said.
Todd Bensman, senior national security fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, said blame for the surge of nontraditional migrants lies squarely at the feet of the Biden administration.
President Biden reversed a Trump-era policy and made clear that he would not turn away illegal immigrant children traveling without parents. The result was a record-shattering 146,054 unaccompanied juveniles nabbed by agents and officers in 2021.
The Biden team also changed policy on pregnant women. Mr. Bensman said a surge of women have shown up at the border “because they’re being let in.”
“Aspiring and intending migrants around the world are listening very closely to who is getting let in and who is not,” he said.
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