U.S. Border Patrol set another immigration record this week after agents on the southern border stumbled upon a group of more than 100 migrants, the 100th large group found near the border since the fiscal year began in October.
Border Patrol’s parent agency, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said the 100th such group was encountered in the Rio Grande Valley Sector, located in the southernmost part of Texas.
In fiscal 2017, CBP documented two groups of 100 people or more. The number of group apprehensions jumped to 13 in 2018.
In the first six months of the 2019 fiscal year, Border Patrol agents working in remote areas with little or no barrier have encountered large groups of families and children at a rate of one every other day.
The rate at which those large groups are illegally crossing the border and surrendering to agents has increased in the past three months. The regions of the U.S.-Mexico border with the most mini-caravans crossing are the Rio Grande Valley; El Paso Sector, which includes all of New Mexico; and Tuscon region of Arizona.
Some of the groups have as many as 300 people.
[Read more: Some 700 Cuban migrants join Central American caravan traveling on foot to US-Mexico border]
CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan told reporters Wednesday the agency is on track to take 100,000 people into custody at the U.S.-Mexico border in March alone. More than one-third of that number is expected to be children.
Agents took more people into custody Monday than in any day in the past 10 years. Federal law enforcement agents made more than 3,700 apprehensions across California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas on Monday.
A senior Border Patrol official told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday 1,100 of those apprehensions took place in Eagle Pass, Texas, which is part of the Del Rio Sector.
