Apr 16, 2022 - Politics & Policy

U.S. border authorities arrested 210,000 migrants last month

Erin Doherty

A U.S. law enforcement officer patrols a section of the U.S. and Mexico border fence in Tijuana, Mexico, on Wednesday, March 23, 2022 — A U.S. law enforcement officer patrols a section of the U.S. and Mexico border fence in Tijuana, Mexico, on March 23. Photo: Cesar Rodriguez/Bloomberg via Getty Images

U.S. border authorities arrested 210,000 migrants in March seeking to cross the border with Mexico, Reuters reports.

Driving the news: The March total — the highest monthly total in two decades — is a 24% increase from the same month in 2021, when 169,000 migrants were arrested at the border.

More than half of the migrants encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border this year have been from the traditional sending countries of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, Reuters notes.
But migrants are also increasingly arriving from further countries, including Ukraine and Russia.
Nearly 1,000 Ukrainians have shown up at the U.S.-Mexico border so far this month — a jump from the 272 encounters in February, Axios' Stef Kight reports.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.

The big picture: The new numbers come as U.S. officials are bracing for a massive influx of more than 170,000 migrants at the Mexico border after Title 42, the pandemic-era public health policy used to rapidly expel migrants at the border, is set to expire next month.

The government has prepared a contingency plan, preparing for a worst-case scenario of up to 18,000 migrants being taken into custody each day, Homeland Security officials said last month.

Go deeper: Scoop: Biden officials fear "mass migration event" if COVID policies end

Add Axios on Google

U.S. border authorities arrested 210,000 migrants last month

What to read next