Court filing: Record surge of migrants encountered in April

Updated: May 17, 2022 / 02:46 PM CDT

Immigrant men are taken into custody by U.S. Border Patrol agents at the U.S.-Mexico border on December 07, 2021 in Yuma, Arizona. Most had come with their families through a nearby gap in the border wall in previous days to seek political asylum in the United States. Women and children were transported to processing facilities first. Border Patrol detention facilities in Yuma were overwhelmed with thousands of new arrivals, with many families trying to reach U.S. soil before the court-ordered re-implementation of the Trump-era Remain in Mexico policy. The policy requires asylum seekers to stay in Mexico for the duration of their U.S. immigration court process. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

(NewsNation) — April was an unprecedented month for migrant encounters along the southern border, the U.S. disclosed in a court document.

The paperwork was filed in the case concerning Title 42. The statute, from the 1940s, allows the federal government, as a way of combating disease, to expel some migrants before they have had a chance to apply for asylum. Former President Donald Trump invoked it when the COVID-19 pandemic began, but now that the pandemic is winding down, President Joe Biden wants to end the practice next week.

Texas and Missouri are suing the administration, arguing they are not following proper procedure to end the practice — and adding that Border Patrol would be overrun without it.

Between April 1 and 30, the Department of Homeland Security recorded 234,088 encounters with noncitizens — the most in a single month in the department’s history, and a 114 percent jump from April 2019. Of those, 96,908 were expelled under Title 42.

The full accounting from the government can be seen below.

Robert Sherman contributed to this report.