Newly released figures show that from January through August of this year, 144,591 migrants were apprehended in Mexico – 94,970 of whom were deported back to their home countries.
The Migration Policy Unit of the Ministry of the Interior reported that 43,027 of the total apprehensions were minors, 26,032 of whom were at least 11 years old; 9,539 of the minors were traveling alone.
Most of the detained migrants were Central Americans, but migrants of other nationalities have been increasing their presence in Mexico.
Through August, 9,551 migrants from the Caribbean, primarily Cuba and Haiti, were detained in Mexico, compared to only 343 during the same eight-month period in 2018.
Apprehensions of Africans during the same period grew more than ten-fold, from 507 last year to 5,286 migrants this year. African migrants tend to be from Cameroon or the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kinshasa).
Apprehensions of South Americans totaled 1,561, up from 900 during the same period last year. The number of Asians detained was almost unchanged at 4,783.