For a third consecutive month, the number of migrant families apprehended by U.S. authorities at the border reached a record high as the Trump administration advocates for more stringent measures to address the recent large-scale migration from Central American countries plagued by violence and poverty.
U.S. immigration authorities apprehended or turned back more than 109,000 migrants — including approximately 58,000 families and nearly 9,000 unaccompanied children — along the U.S.-Mexico border last month, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announcedWednesday. In total, 98,977 migrants of all categories were apprehended between ports of entry along the border.
The figure for families continues a three-month record-setting streak of migrant family apprehensions during President Trump's tenure. In February — the busiest February for border officials in the last 12 years — more than 36,000 people traveling as families were apprehended along the southwestern border, followed by 53,077 in March, a month in which CBP officials said they reached a "breaking point."