About 300,000 migrants from around the globe entered Mexico with the intention of illegally crossing into the United States in the first three months of 2019, according to Mexican officials.

The country’s Interior Secretary Olga Sánchez Cordero said at a press conference on April 23 that Mexico had seen an increase in migrants from Honduras and a smaller number from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Cuba along with African and Asian nations, reported local news website Mexico News Daily.

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Sánchez Cordero described this migration flow as “unprecedented and unusual” and added that “six caravanas madrecitas” or little mother caravans that have around 2,000 people in each entering Mexico in recent months.

“It’s estimated that during the first three months of the year, more than 300,000 migrants have transited through Mexico to enter the United States illegally,” Sánchez Cordero said, reported radio station KJZZ. “There’s a change in the flow of migrants who are entering our country.”

Sánchez Cordero did not specify how it was determined that these migrants wanted to enter the United States illegally.

On April 18, an Epoch Times reporter who was at the border reported that Border Patrol agents had arrested seven Chinese, one Mexican, and one El Salvadoran minor who crossed the border illegally at Mission, Texas.

“Out with #BorderPatrol in Mission, Texas, and just caught 7 Chinese, 1 Mexican, and 1 El Salvadoran minor. All trying to evade capture. Chinese man said he paid $15k for the whole package (flights to Mexico, smuggled across border),” according to The Epoch Times reporter Charlotte Cuthbertson.

In a recent press conference, acting Department of Homeland Security chief, Kevin McAleenan said the Border Patrol has identified over 3,000 fraudulent family unit cases in the past six months.

“It’s very clear that the cartel and smugglers know the weaknesses in our laws. They know that family units and unaccompanied children will be released with no consequences for their illegal entries,” McAleenan said on April 17 during his tour at McAllen, Texas, reported KVEO.

He said illegal aliens are going to great lengths to seek asylum in the United States, by engaging in what he called child recycling rings, reported Texas Public Radio.

“The same child is brought across the border with an adult multiple times to try and gain that release that family units are required under court order,” McAleenan said.

(Excerpted from The Epoch News, Juanita Kan reporting)