Followers of this blog know what a fanatic I am when it comes to reports; lists; quotations (past & present); statistical analyses (especially when they involve politics & sports); geography; and, American History.
Having said that, I read a very interesting report from the Pew Research Center today pertaining to the “illegal border crossings” for 2014. Each year, for the past sixty, the Pew folks issue a study on such crossings along our borders. This year was NO exception.
However, the information within this year’s study was somewhat of a mild surprise to me.
Of the 486,000 apprehensions made this year (I recognize we still have roughly 36 hours left in the year), some 229,000 were of Mexican descent. The balance of 257,000 were non-Mexican – a mixture of many nationalities – for this fiscal year. Remember, these are just the people that were apprehended by the Border Patrol. The total number is up 16% over last year.
The rise in non-Mexicans is due to the steady increase mainly from Central American countries – El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. 52,000 of these people were unaccompanied children from these countries. That figure is more than double from last year.
You have to go back to 1970 to find numbers as low as 2014 regarding Mexican apprehensions when for that year there were 212,000 illegal Mexicans apprehended. Interestingly enough, that same year – 1970 – there were only 12,000 non-Mexican apprehensions.
Estos son tiempos intersantes…
Lobster on the Prairie 