Record number of unaccompanied children and other asylum-seekers detained at the border in March

(Dario Lopez-Mills - Pool/Getty Images)

By Curtis Brodner

Almost 172,000 people, 18,890 of which were unaccompanied children, were stopped at the border in March, according to the Biden administration. The detentions increased by 71% increase from February’s statistics, NPR reported.

An uptick in migration is to be expected in the spring and summer months, but experts believe the extent of the increase is partially due to the re-entry of people who had already attempted to cross the border and were immediately expelled — a common occurrence during the Trump administration due to a zero-tolerance approach to immigration, according to Buzzfeed News.

With no homes to return to and stuck in squalid border camps, refugees will often reattempt to cross into the United States.

"Nearly all are expelled back to Mexico without being allowed to seek asylum, causing many to cross repeatedly, further driving up apprehensions and producing headlines about the highest number of encounters in decades," Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy counsel at the American Immigration Council, told Buzzfeed.

The Biden administration has continued former President Donald Trump’s policy of immediate expulsion for many asylum seekers, despite evidence that the practice is compounding the monthly rate of border crossing attempts and straining the U.S.’s capacity to house migrants.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) immediately expelled about 60% of the roughly 172,000 migrants who were detained at the border in March. About 28% of those who were expelled had previously tried to cross the border.

Detention centers for migrant children are currently pushed past capacity. One CBP camp in Donna, Texas was designed to house 250 children but was holding over 4,100 as of March 30, according to CBS11.

Alternative models to detention that involve community housing efforts, temporary family placement and support from non-governmental organizations like non-profits and faith groups have proven effective and much less expensive in Chicago, Sweden, Canada and Zambia, according to the National Immigrant Justice Center and UNICEF.

Both the Biden and Trump administrations have attempted to use the threat of detention and poor living conditions as a deterrent to immigration, though migration rates have only increased over time.

Biden administration officials said Wednesday that they are making progress toward alleviating the overflow in detention centers by opening more emergency intake sites but made no mention of less expensive and more humane alternatives.

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