If the figures reach one million, it could mirror a similar increase in border crossings in 2019 during Donald Trump’s presidency, when nearly 978,000 migrants were taken into custody.
Border Patrol arrested about 100,000 migrants in February, the most in a month since mid-2019. More migrants typically cross between April and June, Raul Ortiz, deputy chief of the US Border Patrol, told reporters.
“We’re already starting to see some higher days of 6,000-plus apprehensions,” Ortiz said. “So I fully expect our border patrol agents to encounter over a million people this year.”
The Biden administration allowed several reporters to interview border officials and tour a crowded migrant processing facility in Donna, Texas, on Tuesday following growing demands from news outlets for more access. The footage was shared with Reuters and other outlets.
The Donna facility is holding 4,100 migrants, most of whom are unaccompanied minors.
More than 2,000 unaccompanied migrant children have been held there for longer than a legal limit of 72 hours, Border Patrol official Oscar Escamilla said. Of those, 39 children had been stuck in the tent facility for more than 15 days as they await placement in a shelter overseen by the US Department of Health and Human Services.