From October 2021 to October 2023, more than 13,000 Uzbek citizens who tried to cross the border illegally in the United States were arrested, Gazeta.uz reports.

In two years, tens of thousands of citizens tried to enter the USA illegally through Mexico, and the country’s government included them in the category of “special interest aliens”.

Among them are 30,830 citizens of Turkey, 15,594 citizens of Mauritania, 13,624 citizens of Uzbekistan, 6,386 citizens of Afghanistan, 3,153 citizens of Egypt, and 1,613 citizens of Pakistan. Citizens of Iran (659), Syria (538), Jordan (185), Lebanon (164), Yemen (139) and Iraq (123) were among those detained at the border.

It is unclear how many of those arrested have been deported from the US or allowed into the country after an immigration hearing date has been set.