The U.S. Border Patrol reported nearly 180,000 encounters with migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border in June, the highest monthly total in more than two decades.
The number of monthly encounters had fallen to slightly more than 16,000 in April 2020, shortly after the coronavirus outbreak forced the closure of the southwestern border and slowed migration across much of the world. But migrant encounters have climbed sharply since then, reaching more than 178,000 in June, according to the latest data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The June figure is the highest monthly total since March 2000, and far surpasses the peak during the last major wave of migration at the U.S.-Mexico border, which occurred in May 2019. There are also demographic differences too, with single adults and Mexican nationals accounting for a larger share of migrant encounters than during the last wave, when the bulk of migrants were either people traveling in families or those from El Salvador, Guatemala, or Honduras.
