Migrants surge at border 172,000 in March

Phoenix AZ

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President Joe Biden finally called the border surge a "crisis" on April 17, 2021. “We’re going to increase the number [of refugees allowed into the country],” Biden said as he headed home after playing the first golf game of his presidency. “The problem was that the refugee part was working on the crisis that ended up on the border with young people.” “We couldn’t do two things at once,” he added. “But now we are going to increase the number.” In his somewhat garbled comment, Biden seemed to be saying that the strain of handling the influx of migrant children has overtaxed the nation’s immigration authorities — making it impossible for them to handle an increase in authorized refugees as well. On Friday, hours after Biden signed an executive order retaining the Trump administration’s 15,000-person cap on refugee admissions for this year, White House press secretary Jen Psaki issued a hasty announcement saying that the White House will unveil an undisclosed higher cap on May 15. The dramatic surge of migrants rushing across the Mexican border into the U.S. — with 172,000 apprehended in March alone, a 15-year record — has overwhelmed the Customs and Border Patrol, Republicans charge.