US-Mexico border sees 71 percent increase in migrant crossings

New data showed that 18,890 unaccompanied children crossed into the US during March, double the rate in February. 

More than 172,000 migrants were apprehended along the United States’s southern border with Mexico during the month of March, according to official records released on Thursday, a 71 percent increase from February. According to data released by Customs and Border Protection (CBP), 569,879 migrants have been apprehended during the first three months of this year, already more than during all of 2020, when 458,068 migrants crossed into the US. The new numbers come as the administration of Joe Biden is facing increasing pressure for its handling of immigration along the US-Mexico border. Republican leaders accuse Biden of engineering the crisis by overturning the more restrictive border policies imposed by former President Donald Trump.