‘It’s slowed down’: Migrant aid details experience at border since new asylum policy

PHOENIX (AZFamily)—The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol released new numbers this week showing that arrests along the border continue dropping.

While encounters usually decline in the summer, border officials say, this is largely the result of President Joe Biden’s executive order limiting asylum seekers and allowing quick deportations of people who cross.

“It’s slowed down considerably the last couple of weeks. We’ve seen a drop, especially in the last week,” said Gail Kocurek, who is a volunteer with Tucson Samaritans, which provides aid to migrants crossing the border in Sasabe, Arizona.

Under the new rule, which went into effect June 5, asylum processing now stops each day when border arrests reach 2,500.

“A couple hundred down to maybe 40 or 50 a day in our area,” Kocurek said.

She says that since the new policy took effect, there have been far fewer people making the journey and crossing the border.

Kocurek believes the new policy could be deterring some from attempting to enter altogether.

“From what I’ve been told from Border Patrol agents, it is so quiet that they have transferred some of their agents to different locations,” she said.

But, she says, it definitely is not stopping everyone.

“We meet people from, like I said, Albania, Vietnam, China, India, Bangladesh, Guinea. Oh, the most unusual one was Jamaica,” Kocurek said.

Arrests totaled 83,000 in June, down from more than 117,000 per month in May.

“These are asylum seekers. These are people that are coming from all over the world, usually for political reasons,” Kocurek said.

But not everyone is eligible for asylum.

To seek asylum in the U.S., you have to be in danger of experiencing human rights violations in your home country.

For example, Kocurek says, persecution based on race, religion, or nationality. Economic reasons or general crime are not usually reasons that are approved.

“Some of them have taken a year to get here,” Kocurek said.

Border patrol says the new numbers from June show how the new law is impacting nationalities.

Agents have specifically seen a massive drop in people from Mexico and China.

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