US officials: Border crossings soar among Venezuelans

By ELLIOT SPAGAT
Associated Press

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities say the number of Venezuelans taken into custody at the U.S. border with Mexico soared in August. At the same time, migrants from Mexico and some Central American countries were stopped less frequently. Venezuelans surpassed Guatemalans and Hondurans to become the second-largest nationality after Mexicans. U.S. authorities stopped Venezuelans 25,349 times in August, up 43% from July and four times what was recorded in August 2021. Overall, U.S. authorities stopped migrants 203,598 times in August, up 1.8% from July. Authorities stopped all migrants more than 2 million times for the first time during a fiscal year.