Border encounters hit highest level under Biden as Title 42 lift looms

Officials at the US-Mexico border reported 221,303 migrant encounters in March of this year — the most in any single month during the Biden administration — as well as the most apprehensions in exactly 22 years, according to statistics submitted to a Texas federal court Friday. 

The disclosures, which were made in response to a lawsuit by the attorneys general of Texas and Missouri supporting the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy toward asylum-seekers, indicate a 34% increase in the number of encounters over February, when 164,973 stops were reported.

Prior to March of this year, the most encounters during the current administration were 213,593 in July of last year and 209,840 in August. 

The Biden administration also reported that Border Patrol officials had apprehended 209,906 suspected illegal immigrants, the most since 220,063 apprehensions were reported in March of 2000.

The filing was submitted with more than five weeks still to go before the Biden administration removes the Title 42 health authority over illegal immigrants. The policy currently allows border authorities to quickly expel migrants, without first hearing their asylum claims, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 
 
The months of March, April and May are traditionally when the number of attempted border crossings are at their highest. However, new statistics released by border authorities in Texas suggest the long-feared surge of migrants spurred by the scheduled May 23 repeal of Title 42 has already begun.

According to the Border Patrol, agents in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley sector alone have encountered 10 large groups (defined by authorities as numbering 100 people or more) in the past week. That number is a third of all the large groups agents in that single sector have come across since October.

One video posted to Instagram by Rio Grande Valley Chief Patrol Agent Brian Hastings shows a group of 202 illegal immigrants from Central America, South America and the Caribbean being detained near Roma, Texas, at 3 a.m. Thursday. Though the group included family units and unaccompanied minors, just over half its members — 104 in all — were single adults.

Hours later and about 30 miles to the east, another 135 migrants were apprehended near La Grulla. Nearly three-quarters of that group — 101 in all — were single adults and just three were unaccompanied minors. Migrants who took part in the attempted crossing hailed from Honduras, Nicaragua, Cuba — and Uzbekistan.

“The logistics required to transport and process groups of this size place a strain on manpower and resources, as they are usually encountered in desolate areas not easily accessible by large transportation vehicles,” the National Border Patrol Council, the union representing border agents, said in a statement Friday.

The numbers from previous days are even more staggering. Last weekend, border agents rounded up four separate large groups totaling 754 people — including 356 adults and 123 unaccompanied children.

Photos of the arrests show dozens and dozens of immigrants outnumbering just a handful of federal agents.

The situation is little better in the nearby Del Rio sector.

On April 2 — one day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced its intention to lift Title 42 —US Border Patrol agents discovered a group of 146 migrants near the town of Normandy.

The next day, 140 migrants were found near Normandy, and another 126 were found in that same area the following day.

Two days after that, on April 6, Del Rio sector agents discovered the largest group of the current surge. This one was comprised of 171 migrants, 112 of whom were originally from Cuba and another 24 of whom were from Venezuela. The remainder originated in Colombia, Peru, Nicaragua and Chile.

The Border Patrol did not respond to The Post’s request for an explanation of the increase in large groups. But elected officials and local law enforcement have made clear that whether or not there is a direct link between the surge in large illegal immigrant groups and Title 42, the lifting of the order will spur many, many more to follow.

“Once word gets back to family that others have made it into the country after May 23, we expect numbers to dramatically increase,” Border Patrol agent Jon Anfinsen told The Post Friday.

In McAllen, Republican Mayor Javier Villalobos pleaded with Biden to keep Title 42 in place this week, warning in a letter that “no amount of preparation will allow for a local government such as the City of McAllen to respond to the dramatic rise of undocumented migration that is anticipated”.