Recent months have seen a dramatic uptick in the number of children trying to trek across Texas' southern border alone, according to new data from the U.S. Border Patrol.
After a months-long decrease in solo child arrivals after the surge in summer 2014, the numbers are back up to their highest levels for early fall in at least six years.
August and September, the most recent months with available data, have borne the brunt of the recent increase. In the Border Patrol's Big Bend sector of Texas, the number of unaccompanied children apprehended trying to enter the country during that period averaged 24 between 2010 and 2014. This year agents tallied 319.
Statewide, 7,390 unaccompanied children were caught crossing in those two months, and 85 percent increase over the same period last year
"We're clearly seeing a significant uptick," said Marc Rosenblum, a deputy director at the Migration Policy Institute in Washington D.C. He said that the slump of arrivals in the last year may have been an anomaly, and that the recent numbers are in line with what trend lines predicted years ago. . .
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