Arrest figures from the Department of Homeland Security suggest that the number of people from all over the world trying to illegally enter the US is on the increase. This is in addition to the hundreds of thousands of immigrants, mostly from Latin America, apprehended at the US-Mexico border over the course of the last 12 months.
Over 8000 people from various countries, including Bangladesh, China, India, and Nepal were arrested between October 2015 and August this year. This created extra challenges for immigration officials whose job is to identify immigrants and deport illegal border crossers. Over 408,000 people were apprehended attempting to illegally cross the US border with Mexico during the last year. This suggests an increasing trend for immigrants to look for alternative routes that take them to South America, then Central America, and the US-Mexico border.
The Presidential campaign season has seen illegal immigration becoming an increasingly heated topic, with the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, making the issue one of the key tenets of his campaign to win the White House, generating much controversy in the process.
The number of Mexican immigrants crossing the border into the US has fallen, while China and India are now among the top ten countries whose citizens are attempting to illegally enter the US. Many immigrants from those two nations have also legally entered via US visas only to then overstay and remain in the country illegally.