US border authorities arrested 210,000 migrants trying to cross the border into Mexico in March, the biggest monthly figure in two decades, adding to the challenges in the coming months for US President Joe Biden.
The March total represents a 24% increase from the same month a year earlier, when 169,000 migrants were picked up at the border, the start of a migration surge that has left thousands of unaccompanied children stranded for days at border patrol stations as awaited placement in overloaded shelters.
Biden, a Democrat who took office in January 2021, has vowed to roll back many of the hardline immigration policies of his Republican predecessor, former President Donald Trump, but has struggled both operationally and politically with the high number of attempted crossings.
Republicans, who hope to gain control of Congress in the midterm elections on Nov. 8, say Biden’s reversal of Trump-era policies has encouraged more illegal immigration.
Members of the Biden administration have warned that migration could increase further after U.S. health officials said they would end a pandemic border law by May 23 that allows asylum seekers and other migrants to be quickly expelled back home. Mexico to stop the spread of Covid-19.
