Post by Colin Troup. Colgate Class of 2022.

Source: Montes, J., & Caldwell, A. (2021, March 24). “Men looking for work Drive surge in Illegal crossings at the U.S. Border.” Wall Street Journal.

The illegal immigrant surge along the southern border of the United States is expected to be the largest in 20 years. Unlike the migrant waves of 2019 and 2014, which were mostly made up of Central American families and unaccompanied minors, this one has been guided by single adults. With the pandemic calming and the US economy rising, the majority of the migrants are Mexicans, mostly men looking for jobs. According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, 60% of all single adults apprehended were Mexicans, with a majority of them being men, entering to look for work such as picking fruits or roofing.

Illegal immigration from Mexico to the United States peaked in 2001 at an estimated 1.6 million. However, migration began to slow in the later years due to stricter border control and enhanced economic growth in Mexico. But, Mexico’s economy has been altered by the Coronavirus, leading the economy to return to its old form of bad shape amid the pandemic. Such article relates to concepts discussed in class as the events unfolding parallel our exploration of factors that force people to migrate. The article explains how the influx of single adults and unaccompanied children from Mexico captured broad attention. These immigrants are faced with pull factors, such as economic opportunity and family networks, and push factors, such as poverty and violence, that encourage and pressure them to travel North. But as immigration policies grew stricter in the United States, and economic growth began to decay in the origin country of Mexico, they face difficulties of being able to cross the border legally, leading to rejected entry, the waiting for the Biden administration to let them in, or illegal crossing.