The number of migrants attempting to illegally cross the southern border soared 25% in March compared to the month before, according to newly released numbers from Customs and Border Protection.
Border officials encountered 191,889 migrants attempting to illegally cross the southern border in March, up from 156,138 encounters in February.
The March numbers bring the total number of migrant encounters in fiscal year 2023 up to 1,223,067, which is already three times higher than the 458,088 migrant encounters during the entirety of fiscal year 2020 – the year before President Biden took office and the border crisis began.
The rise of migrant encounters in March comes as the Biden administration prepares for the end of Title 42 in May, a Trump-era border security policy that Biden has pushed to end since he took office.
During previous anticipated endings of Title 42, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) document obtained by ABC News, revealed that the end of the policy will result in as many as 18,000 migrants attempting to illegally cross the southern border each day.
“The DHS Office of Immigration Statistics (OIS) produced projections for post-Title 42 Southwest Border encounters describing low, medium, high, or very high encounter scenarios,” the document says. “These scenarios underpin planning assumptions that generate requirements which in turn drive operational execution. Based on these projections the SBCC is currently planning for 6,000, 12,000 (high) and 18,000 (very high) encounters per day.”