US caught a huge number of migrants at Mexico border in March, report says

US authorities caught more than 171,000 migrants at the border with Mexico in March -- the highest monthly total in two decades and the latest sign of the mounting humanitarian challenge confronting President Joe Biden.

According to a report published in Reuters news agency, the preliminary March arrest totals at the US-Mexico border represent the highest monthly level since April 2000, when border patrol agents caught more than 180,000 migrants.

The total includes about 19,000 unaccompanied migrant children and 53,000 family members traveling together, the figures show. Single adults made up roughly 99,000 of the total.

The Biden administration is struggling to house newly arrived unaccompanied children, who are exempted from expulsion under a COVID-19 health order known as Title 42. Children have been backed up in crowded border stations and processing centers for days.

The shelter system that houses the children has been overwhelmed and US officials have scrambled in recent weeks to open emergency shelters, including sites in convention centers in Dallas and San Diego.

Meanwhile, the March figures show a 178 per cent increase in the number of migrant families caught at the border compared with last month.

More than half of the 19,000 family members caught at the border in February were not expelled, according to public US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data, with many released into the United States to pursue immigration court cases.

(with inputs)