Border apprehensions hit yearly high as another migrant caravan gathers in Mexico

Apprehensions of undocumented migrants crossing the southern U.S. border passed 1.7 million in fiscal year 2021 to hit an all-time high, according to Customs and Border Protection data obtained by NBC News, as U.S. officials turn their attention to a huge new caravan of migrants in southern Mexico that may head north as soon as this weekend.

The caravan gathered in Tapachula, near the Mexico-Guatemala border, includes thousands of migrants fleeing Haiti, Venezuela, Cuba and other Latin American countries, two Department of Homeland Security officials said. Violent clashes with Mexican police have broken out as desperate migrants try to leave the camp and continue their journey. New images from Telemundo, NBCUniversal's Spanish-language network, show police meeting migrants with shields and beating them when they try to cross barriers.

The Mexican government is trying to keep the caravan from leaving Tapachula, but organizers of the group have pinned Saturday as the date to start traveling to the U.S.

A DHS official said the agency is keeping an eye on Tapachula, as well as other areas where large groups have massed, such as Necocli, a northern Colombia town where more than 20,000 migrants, many of them Haitian, are camping as they prepare to make their way to the U.S. border.