President Joe Biden’s policies undeniably contributed to border agents arresting a record number of migrants in March, Heritage Foundation immigration experts said Friday.
Customs and Border Protection reportedly encountered over 171,000 illegal migrants in March 2021, a 400% increase compared to March of 2020, according to preliminary figures reported by The Washington Post.
Heritage Foundation researchers Lora Ries and Mark Morgan, acting director of Customs and Border Protection in the Trump administration, criticized the Biden administration for not acknowledging the increase in the number of migrants arriving at the southern border as a crisis and instead calling it a “seasonal phenomenon.”
“We have a crisis on the border, even though the Biden administration still refuses to acknowledge it. Today’s numbers are just more evidence of this undeniable reality—and proof that President Biden’s policies are driving this crisis,” Ries and Morgan said in a joint statement.
The more than 171,000 migrants taken into Customs and Border Protection custody in March is the highest monthly total since 2006, according to the preliminary figures obtained by the Post. CBP arrested nearly 19,000 unaccompanied migrant minors, surpassing the previous monthly high of around 11,800 recorded in May 2019.
“The crisis will only end when the Biden administration reinstates strong and sound immigration policies—policies that were working prior to the new administration taking office and ending most of them,” Ries and Morgan said.
The Biden administration ended Title 42 restrictions against allowing unaccompanied migrant minors into the U.S., though the public health order is still in place for rapid expulsion of most migrant adults and some family units, according to Politico.
Customs and Border Protection reportedly encountered over 53,000 migrants traveling as family units in March, compared to around 19,200 in February, the Post reported. A current CBP official and a former one official both of whom reviewed the March apprehension numbers, confirmed their accuracy to the Post.
“Today’s numbers should be a wake-up call to this administration—Biden’s border crisis is unsustainable and is drowning our Border Patrol agents in a flood of lawlessness,” Heritage’s Ries and Morgan said.
CBP did not respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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