U.S. border agents report rise in crossings by families and children as White House warns migrants not to come

The number of migrant families with children and unaccompanied minors apprehended by U.S. agents along the southern border increased last month, testing the current pandemic-era capacity to process them, according to government data published Wednesday.

Adult migrants traveling without children, however, continued to make up the bulk of those apprehended by U.S. authorities and most were swiftly expelled to Mexico under a Trump-era emergency edict issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Out of 78,000 arrests in January, nearly 65,000 involved single adults.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported detaining nearly 5,900 unaccompanied minors and making 7,500 apprehensions of parents and children traveling together in January. In December, U.S. officials made fewer than 4,700 apprehensions of families and nearly 5,000 of unaccompanied children.

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