Number of migrants crossing the border at highest level in decades

The number of migrant arrivals along the U.S. southern border climbed to the highest level in more than two decades in March, according to new government data.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a court filing Friday that there were 221,303 encounters with migrants along the border with Mexico border last month, a new high under the Biden administration.

The March figures, first reported by CBS News, combine statistics reported by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Border Patrol.

Since President Joe Biden took office, it was the third time that monthly border arrivals in the southwest surpassed 200,000.

The surge came after Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced that the administration would end the Trump-era public health rule known as Title 42, which the government has been using since the beginning of the coronaviruses to expel migrants who try to cross the U.S. border, including asylum seekers, citing the spread of Covid.

The data for March shows that there were 109,549 expulsions under Title 42.

After the public health policy is no longer implemented, federal officials have raised concerns about a surge at the southern border. Since it was first enacted in March 2020, the policy has been used to expel more than 1.7 million migrants.

The impending termination of Title 42 has come under harsh GOP criticism, with Republican lawmakers and even some Democratic centrists — Senators. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Jon Tester of Montana demand Biden to hold off on making the change.

Republicans plan to make immigration a key issue in midterms, particularly in battleground states and districts, as Democrats face an uphill battle to defend their slim majority in the House and Senate this November.