There were reportedly more border crossings in March along the southern border than in any other month for the past 15 years, preliminary data showed.
More than 171,000 migrants were taken into custody at the border in March, according to reports citing preliminary data from Customs and Border Protection.
In February, CBP encountered just over 100,000 migrants at the United States-Mexico border, 9,457 of whom were unaccompanied minors, according to the agency. In March, 18,800 unaccompanied minors were taken in, the Washington Post reported, which obtained preliminary CBP data.
ON THE FRONT LINES OF THE BORDER CRISIS
Among migrants who came across the border as part of a family unit in February, there were 19,246 encounters, an increase from 7,294 in January. In March, 53,000 were reportedly encountered by CBP.
A current CBP official and a former CBP official who had seen the preliminary data confirmed its accuracy, according to the Washington Post.
“It happens every single solitary year. There is a significant increase in the number of people coming to the border in the winter months of January, February, March,” President Joe Biden said on March 25. “The reason they’re coming is that it’s the time they can travel with the least likelihood of dying on the way because of the heat in the desert.”
January through March’s “vertical growth curve” has been higher than any comparable period in the past 20 years, according to the Washington Post’s analysis.
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When asked by the Washington Examiner whether the purported data was authentic, a CBP spokesperson did not say but noted that data would be released on April 8, “consistent with our past practice.”
“We are on pace to encounter more individuals on the southwest border than we have in the last 20 years,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement on March 16. “We are securing our border, executing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) public health authority to safeguard the American public and the migrants themselves, and protecting the children. We have more work to do.”
