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Friday, May. 7, 2021

Is the Biden administration claiming progress in dealing with the influx of migrants at the southern border?

Lisa Freedland, Gigafact

yes

In an April 30 interview with NBC, President Biden asserted that his administration has made progress in managing a surge in the number of unaccompanied minors taken into custody after being apprehended crossing the border. “We've now gotten control,” he said, when asked about the record numbers.

The number of unaccompanied minors in the custody of the Border Patrol dropped 88% between late March and early May, according to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The average stay for unaccompanied children in Border Patrol custody has dropped from 130 hours in March to 20 hours. Families have also begun to be reunited.

In April the overall number of migrants apprehended at the border remained high. Two news organizations, citing Border Patrol sources, report that the number in April was only slightly lower than March’s 172,000, but showed signs of leveling off.

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