[ti:Officials: More Migrants Caught at US Border Than at Any Time Since 2000] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:00.04]United States officials caught 171,000 people [00:05.04]trying to illegally cross the U.S. border with Mexico last month. [00:11.68]That is 178 percent more than in February. [00:18.00]Most of the people are trying to escape [00:21.52]difficult conditions in Central America and Mexico. [00:27.68]The Reuters news agency reports that more people [00:31.12]tried to cross the border in March than at any time in the last 20 years. [00:38.08]About 99,000 of the total were single adults. [00:44.52]The rest included almost 19,000 children traveling alone [00:51.20]and about 53,000 family members traveling together. [00:57.32]Children who arrive at the U.S. border alone are not sent back immediately. [01:03.84]They are housed in "processing centers." [01:08.44]However, the centers are designed for many fewer people [01:13.64]and now are overcrowded. [01:17.76]As a result, the U.S. government opened emergency shelters [01:23.04]in Dallas, Texas and San Diego, California. [01:27.92]But those are also getting full. [01:32.32]President Joe Biden has said the "vast majority" of families [01:37.48]who arrive together at the border are being sent back. [01:41.32]However, information from U.S. Customs and Border Protection [01:46.80]shows that might not be the case. [01:51.24]More than half of the 19,000 people who arrived [01:55.64]as part of family groups were not sent back in February. [02:01.28]Many were released into the U.S. and were required [02:05.68]to appear at an immigration court at a later time. [02:11.20]Reuters also looked at documents from three separate days in March [02:17.32]that showed fewer than 14 to 16 percent of family members [02:23.56]were sent home on those days. [02:27.24]Sarah Peck is a spokeswoman [02:30.16]from the U.S. Department of Homeland security. [02:33.72]She said, "one day or week of statistics [02:38.44]doesn't reflect the full picture." [02:42.84]She added that it is still the government's policy [02:47.40]to send families away. [02:51.44]However, Mexico, the country from which the migrants entered the U.S., [02:56.96]is not always able to receive them. [03:01.00]So they are sent to an immigration court. [03:04.28]I'm Dan Friedell. 更多听力请访问51VOA.COM