WASHINGTON, April 16 (Reuters) – US border authorities arrested 210,000 migrants trying to cross the border into Mexico in March, the highest monthly total in two decades and highlighting challenges for US President Joe Biden in the coming months.
The total for March is an increase of 24% over the same month a year earlier, when 169,000 migrants were taken to the border, the beginning of an increase in migration, leaving thousands of unaccompanied children left in crowded border patrol stations for days waiting to be accommodated in overcrowded government shelters.
Biden, a Democrat who took office in January 2021, has promised to reverse many of the hardline immigration policies of his Republican predecessor, former President Donald Trump, but is fighting both operationally and politically with a number of attempts to cross.
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Republicans hoping to gain control of the US Congress in the November 8 by-elections say the repeal of Biden’s Trump-era Biden policies has encouraged more illegal immigration.
Biden officials have warned that migration could increase further after US health officials said they would suspend the border order from the pandemic era until May 23. The order, known as Title 42, allows asylum seekers and other migrants to be expelled quickly to Mexico to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Read more
FILE PHOTO – Asylum seekers leave the Rio Bravo after crossing it to surrender to US border patrols to seek refuge in El Paso, Texas, USA, as seen by Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, April 13, 2022 Mr. REUTERS / José Luis González
While more than half of the migrants encountered on the US-Mexico border in recent months are from traditional sending countries Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, more and more migrants are coming from more distant places, including Ukraine and Russia.
U.S. officials are preparing for up to 18,000 meetings with migrants a day in the coming weeks, but are also preparing for a smaller increase. Read more
210,000 migrants arrested in March, a figure released publicly in a court case Friday night, is the highest monthly total since February 2000, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection statistics since 2000.
Another 11,000 migrants tried to enter a legal checkpoint on the southwestern border in March without a valid visa or permit, according to the case file.
Approximately half of the migrants met in March were expelled under Title 42, court documents say.
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Report by Ted Hesson in Washington; Edited by Diane Kraft
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