Tens of thousands of Mexican family members crossed the southern border in recent months, soaring past previous levels.
President Biden’s decisions to end migrant family detention and launch an app for people to schedule legal border crossings have likely contributed to drawing more Mexican families, experts tell Axios.
Governance concerns, poverty and watching other migrants take their chances at the U.S. are all probable factors for the rise, Cris Ramon, senior policy advisor with the advocacy group We Are Unidos, said.
But so is the new CBP One app. “When you open legal pathways, folks will take them,” Ramon said.
The vast majority of migrants who enter the country via the app are released into the U.S. on parole, which lets them get a work permit in roughly six weeks and legally stay in the country for up to two years.