U.S.-Mexico Border Arrests Top One Million in Six Months

· Border agents made 209,906 arrests along the border in March

The U.S. has made more than a million arrests at the U.S.-Mexico border since October, the fastest pace of illegal border crossings in at least the last two decades, according to new data released Monday by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Border agents made 209,906 arrests along the border in March, making it the busiest month in two decades. Another 11,397 migrants were permitted to enter the country to seek humanitarian protection at land border crossings, according to the data. The numbers cover a period from the beginning of the fiscal year to the end of March.

The numbers included a sharp rise in migrants from Cuba and Ukraine. About 32,271 Cubans crossed illegally at the border in March alone—almost as high as the 38,390 Cubans who crossed in all of the last fiscal year. So far this year, 79,377 Cubans have crossed the border illegally.

Nearly 5,000 Ukrainians were allowed to enter the country on temporary humanitarian grounds, primarily at a border checkpoint near San Diego.

The record numbers come as the Biden administration prepares to lift a pandemic-era border policy on May 23. Title 42, which was implemented under former President Donald Trump, allows border agents to quickly turn away people who are arrested trying to enter the country illegally as well as those who seek asylum at a border checkpoint.

Of the 1.01 million crossings so far this year, roughly 51% resulted in the migrant being expelled under Title 42, while the rest were processed under normal immigration procedures, meaning they were either rapidly deported, detained or released to seek asylum. Title 42 can elevate the total number of border crossings each month, as it encourages some migrants to cross the border repeatedly, who are attempting to enter the country undetected.

Even with Title 42 in place, the Biden administration presided over the highest number of arrests made at the border on record last year. Administration officials have acknowledged that revoking the policy is likely to result in a further rise in illegal border crossings, as migrants who want to seek asylum will no longer be blocked from doing so.

Some Senate Democrats who are facing tough re-election races broke with Mr. Biden earlier this month and joined Republicans in holding up $10 billion in Covid-19 aid over concerns related to the administration ending Title 42.

Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan have called on the administration to delay changing the policy until there is a detailed plan in place to deal with the expected increase in migrants.

The administration has highlighted its early planning, saying it is pre-emptively strengthening government contracts for transportation and medical care and adding more staff to handle increased arrivals. Officials said they are prepping for a worst-case scenario that assumes that an average of 18,000 migrants crossing the border illegally a day—roughly triple the pace seen so far under the Biden administration.

The administration is also expected to implement a new border policy which asks asylum officers rather than immigration judges to hear claims, which could speed up the time it takes to deliver a migrant’s asylum decision.

Those border policy changes are set to take effect in late May to coincide with the lifting of Title 42, though it isn’t yet clear which population, such as single adults or migrants from a specific country, will be subject to the change first.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that officials will continue to have discussions regarding preparedness for lifting Title 42 and engage members of Congress, but they don’t want the issue to hold up Covid-19 aid.

The backlog of pending cases in immigration courts has reached 1.7 million, according to a tracking tool at Syracuse University.

The surge this year is being driven by new trends at the border. While Mexican men and Central American families made up the bulk of those crossing during previous border emergencies, now roughly 40% of those coming are fleeing dictatorships or desperate economic circumstances farther afield, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported.

Experts say the economic circumstances of the region—Latin American economies contracted most in any region of the world in response to the Covid-19 pandemic—are driving migrants to leave their homes in search of work or to escape starvation. Migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, the region’s three dictatorships, make up a significant chunk of the flow heading north.

Republicans are signaling the party will increase immigration-focused attacks ahead of the midterm elections. Immigration and border security remain a top issue for voters, according to a March Wall Street Journal poll. The same poll found that 57% of those surveyed disapproved of Mr. Biden’s handling of the border, and 33% said they approved.

Lawmakers from both parties visited parts of the southern border recently to meet with Border Patrol agents and local officials.

After visiting the border in Arizona, Mr. Kelly told local reporters that the plan submitted by the administration doesn’t include information he wants, including the number of buses and the level of funding needed to transport and process migrants and where the additional facilities to house migrants will be. “It’s going to be a crisis on top of a crisis,” he said.

He said he has talked to Mr. Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas about the border and the response so far has been “unacceptable.” “I would say they understand that they might have an impending problem. I don’t think they’ve come to the realization of what level it will be.”

Rep. James Comer (R., Ky.), who spent time with Border Patrol agents along the U.S.-Mexico border, said: “It’s been exactly a year since our last trip and it’s only gotten worse.”

Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute, said that while the administration’s options are limited, there is more they can do to assure concerned lawmakers and the public. They can outline more specifically who might be eligible for detention or rapid deportation, he said. And they can specify where they plan to house migrants who receive an initial asylum screening at the border.