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April Border Crossings Set Another Record

The number of asylum seekers crossing the southwestern U.S. border with Mexico broke a new record last month.

The new numbers coincided with a slew of border officials appearing before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee. Border Patrol chief Carla Provost warned agents are overwhelmed.

"Our apprehension numbers are off the charts compared to recent years," she said.

460,000 people were apprehended by the end of April. In fact, Border Patrol agents apprehended nearly twice as many people last month than in December when the government shutdown began over President Donald Trump’s fight with Congress for border wall funding.

The migrants are mostly asylum seekers and, now, mostly families.

"For the first time in Border Patrol history, nearly half of the adults we apprehended in April brought children," Provost said.

Provost said large tent cities like those the agency built recently in Texas will now be built in the Yuma Sector.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which has a host of immigration and border related lawsuits underway against the Trump Administration, argued that the apprehension numbers the agency released don't show the full picture. For example, they don't show how many people were "metered" or prevented from coming up to a port of entry to ask for asylum. The data also doesn't show how many people are simply forced to remain in Mexico to wait out their asylum hearings under a new policy.

Fronteras Desk senior editor Michel Marizco is an award-winning investigative reporter based in Flagstaff.