YUMA, Ariz. — The number of migrants attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border rose 3% in April, marking an all-time high.
While overall attempts rose, the number of unaccompanied minors dropped from a previous all-time high recorded in March.
Customs and Border Protection stopped 178,622 people at the southwest border, in comparison to just over 173,000 in March.
The high April number was mainly derived from single adults attempting to cross the border illegally, CBP said. But that number could be skewed because some individuals could have made multiple attempts to cross and were counted each time.
According to data released on Tuesday, 62.5% of the migrants were expelled back to Mexico under Title 42, the CDC guideline placed under the Trump Administration as a result of COVID-19.
The number of children and single minors from the Northern Triangle traveling along the border without the parents dropped 12% from March.
April registered 13,962 unaccompanied children.
Unaccompanied children in border patrol custody, and the time they spent there also fell. As of May 11, 455 children were being cared for by agents and spent an average of 28 hours in custody. More than 20,000 remain in the care of the federal government at Human Health Services.
To help with the overflow of migrants in Arizona, two soft-sided facilities opened up in Tucson and Yuma last month.
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