White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is facing backlash for a claim she made about how the Biden administration has handled the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border.
During a press briefing on Thursday, Jean-Pierre declined to speculate about what the border will look like after Title 42 — a pandemic-era restriction — is lifted.
However, she added, “What I can say is that this is an administration that has taken the challenges that we see at the border very seriously since day one.”
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There were 2.76 million illegal border crossings in the 2022 fiscal year, which set a new record. And there were 1.7 million in the 2021 fiscal year.
However, earlier this year, the Biden administration implemented stricter immigration measures aimed at curtailing illegal border crossings.
NBC News reported U.S. Border Patrol officials encountered migrants 128,877 times in February, and 128,913 in January.
The February numbers are the lowest since February 2021.
In March, officials said the number of encounters at the border rose to 162,317, up 25% from February.
Still, the numbers in March marked a 23% decrease from the previous year.
However, the number of border crossings could be headed for a massive uptick. Officials have estimated there could be over 10,000 illegal border crossings per day once Title 42 ends.