Report: Border apprehensions spiked in October and November

Migrant apprehensions at the southern border went up 42 percent in October and November of 2016, compared with the same period in 2015, according to an analysis of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) statistics by the Pew Research Center.

Federal agents detained 93,405 people at the border in October and November this year, the highest two-month number in at least five years.

Much of the growth in apprehensions was driven by families trying to cross the border. Pew reported that 28,691 individuals traveling with family members were apprehended in that period, a 130 percent spike from the same period in 2015.

{mosads}Most of the migrants captured were Central Americans, as opposed to Mexicans.

Fiscal 2016 is the second year ever in which Central American apprehensions outnumbered Mexican apprehensions. In 2014, a surge of Central American migrants fleeing violence and economic threats created a surge that overwhelmed border authorities.

The border region is also experiencing a surge of Haitians, Africans and migrants from all over the world trying to get to the United States through Mexico.

The Los Angeles Times reported Thursday that 15,000 non-Latin American migrants passed through the Mexican state of Baja California in 2016, a fivefold increase from 2015.

Although apprehensions of immigrants illegally crossing the border from certain Asian countries are up, many long-distance migrants are attempting to seek asylum by crossing at legal points of entry, creating a glut at those checkpoints and at Mexican border shelters, the Times reported.