An increase in crossings at a remote, roadless swath of jungle along the Colombia-Panama border has prompted U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to brace what the agency said will be “a million encounters.”
According to CBP Chief Raul Ortiz, it’s a matter of time since the start of the fiscal year in October 2021 when the number of apprehensions surpasses the 1 million mark.
"Probably in the next two or three days we’ll get over a million encounters or apprehensions along the southwest border," Ortiz said on March 29 at a border security conference in San Antonio, Texas, according to Fox News.
Ortiz said CBP has encountered migrants from 157 countries, Fox News reported.
"Every sector is busier than they were back in ‘21," he said, according to Fox News.
CBP reported that the number of migrant encounters significantly jumped from 101,099 in February 2021 to 164,973 this past February.
While March's figures aren't available, they're expected to surpass those of more than a month ago, per Fox News.
Late last month, Ortiz said CBP was preparing to make as much as 8,000 apprehensions on a daily basis during the next two to three months, CNN reported.
According to the chief, his department has been dealing with significantly more volume than during the Trump administration.
"We're managing a flow that's significant," Ortiz told CNN. "As I get to, you know, 7,000 to 7,500 a day average, that's going to put additional strain."
Reuters reported on March 29 that crossings at the notoriously dangerous Darien Gap where Central America and South America meet have risen compared to the same time in 2021.
Despite the dangers the Darien Gap presents, migrants have used it as a main artery in their journey to the U.S.'s southern border.
According to United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the total number of those crossing went from 2,928 in the first two months of 2021 to 8,456 in the same period of 2022, including 1,367 girls, boys and adolescents.
With so many people attempting to go to the U.S., Mexico has experienced an uptick in human trafficking as gangs shifted their concentration from oil and drugs to people.
According to Reuters, multiple asylum seekers stuck in Mexico have resorted to prostitution while Title 42 restrictions remain in place.
Prostitution; however, isn't a new phenomenon. A 2017 Doctors Without Borders report revealed that approximately 30% of female migrants who traveled through Mexico to get to the U.S. were sexually abused.
"Migrants and refugees are preyed upon by criminal organizations, sometimes with the tacit approval or complicity of national authorities, and subjected to violence and other abuses—abduction, theft, extortion, torture and rape—that can leave them injured and traumatized," the organization said in its analysis.
Children themselves have been caught in the web of trafficking.
The Latin American branch of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women's study determined that 60% of Latin American children "who set out to cross the border alone or with smugglers have been caught by the cartels and are being abused in child pornography or drug trafficking," the New York Times reported.
A Harvard Harris poll conducted last fall showed that 73% of respondents agreed that “current surge in illegal immigrants at the border” is a “crisis that needs to be addressed immediately.”
A UNODC Human Trafficking report said that migrants who traversed the Darien Gap were “regularly subjected to abuse, violence and sexual assault, and women and girls are the primary victims.”