U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported that encounter numbers for March were significantly higher than February and are expected to continue rising following the announcement that Title 42 expulsions end in May.
On April 18, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced that there were 221,303 total encounters along the southwest land border in March, a 33% increase compared to numbers reported in February. However, these numbers can be misunderstood, as the increased number of expulsions has caused higher than normal occurrences of multiple crossing attempts, with 28% of the 221,303 people having at least one prior encounter in the previous year.
“CBP continues to enforce the CDC’s Title 42 public health order," CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus said, according to CPB's website. "Half of migrants encountered in March were processed for expulsion under Title 42, and those who were not processed under Title 42 continue to be processed for removal under Title 8, the same authorities CBP has used throughout our history.”
In addition to the increase in border encounters in general, encounters of unaccompanied children also increased by 18%, with 14,167 encounters in March compared with 11,984 in February. In March, the average number of unaccompanied children in CBP custody was 582 per day, compared with an average of 520 per day in February.
“While we may likely see an increase in encounters after the CDC’s Title 42 public health order is terminated on May 23, CBP continues to execute this administration’s comprehensive strategy to safely, orderly and humanely manage our borders," Magnus said, according to the CBP website. "CBP is surging personnel and resources to the border, increasing processing capacity, securing more ground and air transportation, and increasing medical supplies, food, water, and other resources to ensure a humane environment for those being processed.”
The CBP also announced plans to increase the use of Title 8 expulsions in the wake of Title 42 being suspended. According to the Wall Street Journal, the end of Title 42 expulsions, which has rejected 2 million migrants since March 2020, now presents itself as a path for migrants to keep returning to the border for any reason.
