Migrants from Central America have been crossing the U.S. southern border illegally, raising concern as neighbors attempt to control their own borders, The Washington Post reports.

The migrants are trickling in primarily from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, an area which is also called the Northern Triangle.

It is also reported that the number of families and unaccompanied minors in 2016 is set to surpass the total in 2014. The situation, at that time, got out of control which also caused a political uproar over President Barack Obama's immigration policies.

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection statistics, border control agents have held more than 122,000 illegal immigrants so far in 2016, which is slightly less than the 2014 total of 132,259, The Daily Caller reports.

"Clearly, at this point, the deterrence strategy has failed," Kevin Appleby, international migration policy director at the Center for Migration Studies, was quoted as saying. "There needs to be a paradigm shift here, with more of a focus on protection and less on the enforcement side."

Vice President Joe Biden is expected to meet with leaders of the Northern Triangle nations at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington to discuss progress on strengthening border security.

The Obama administration is not willing to address this Central American exodus as a refugee crisis after comparing the situation to Syria, where millions have been displaced by a devastating civil war.