U.S. Border Patrol agents made about 1.9 million arrests in 2021, a record high reflecting an upsurge in attempted crossings across the Mexican border, new data show.
About 20% of the migrants arrested for entering the country illegally last year were released into the U.S. to await hearings on their asylum applications, down from about 56% during a prior surge of illegal border crossings just before the pandemic began, the data show.

U.S. Border Patrol agents made 1.9 million arrests at the Mexican border in 2021, reflecting a surge in attempted crossings; about 402,000 migrants were released in the U.S. pending asylum hearings.
Source: El Universal