(CNSNews.com) - "I anticipate terminating the national emergency concerning the COVID-19 pandemic on May 11, 2023," President Joe Biden said in February.

The end of the COVID emergency means that Title 42, the public health authority, will no longer be used as grounds to immediately expel illegal border-crossers.

As the March numbers suggest, the anticipated end of Title 42 next month may prompt another surge at the nation's borders.

Terrorist watchlist

Of particular concern is the growing number of people on the terrorist watchlist apprehended between ports of entry.

CBP says in the first six months of Fiscal Year 2023, 80 people named in the Terrorist Screening Dataset (TSDS) have been apprehended between ports of entry at the southwest border; and 2 have been apprehended at the northern border, for a total of 82 so far this fiscal year.

CBP apprehended a total of 98 people with TSDS records in all of Fiscal Year 2022 -- all 98 at the southwest border.

Of course, no one knows how many suspected terrorists evade detection.

(The Terrorist Screening Dataset – also known as the terrorist “watchlist” – has evolved over the last decade to include individuals who represent a potential threat to the United States, including known affiliates of watchlisted individuals.)

Southwest border

In March, U.S. Customs and Border Protection says it encountered 191,899 undocumented migrants at the southwest border between ports of entry and at ports of entry.

That's a 22.39 percent increase from the 156,787 encounters recorded in February, but a 13.78 percent decline from the 222,574 encountered in March 2022.

The chart below shows how illegal immigration has soared at the southwest border since Joe Biden became president in January 2021.

In fact, as the Republican National Committee noted, the 191,899 foreigners encountered in March makes it the 25th month in a row encounters have been above 150,000 at the southwest border.

Going deeper into the numbers at the southwest border:

-- Single adults (133,292 of them) accounted for 69.45 percent of total illegal southwest border-crossers in March.

-- 87,662 (or 45.68 percent) of those southwest border-crossers were expelled under Title 42, which -- as noted -- ends next month.

-- 77,010 (or 40.13 percent) of those illegally crossing the southwest border in March came from countries "other" than El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico.

-- Encounters of unaccompanied children at the southwest border increased 14 percent, with 12,374 encounters in March compared with 10,845 in February.

-- In March, the average number of unaccompanied children in CBP custody was 464 per day, compared with an average of 438 per day in February.

-- Encounters of family unit individuals increased by 38 percent from 33,291 in February to 45,964 in March -- which is a 47 percent decrease from the peak of 86,626 in August 2021.

Northern border

Recent press reports note that illegal migration also is accelerating at the northern border with Canada, and the March numbers bear that out.

In March, CBP encountered 15,774 undocumented migrants at the northern border, the second highest number on record, as the chart below shows.

12,792 of those 15,774, or 81.09 percent, were single adults.

Nationwide

Nationwide encounters in March -- including the northern and southern border as well as arrivals by sea -- totaled 257,910, as the chart below shows.

183,166 of those 257,910 undocumented arrivals, or 71 percent, were single adults.

People from Mexico, Central America and South America account for the majority of nationwide encounters, but CPB also lists other nationalities encountered in March, as follows: China, 4,388; Russia, 5,271; Ukraine, 6,676; Cuba, 6,817; India, 9,648; Turkey, 2,307; Romania, 484; Myanmar/Burma, 381.

You can find more nationwide citizenship numbers here.

"Joe Biden refuses to address the crisis his open border agenda created," the Republican National Committee said in its reaction to the March encounters.

"Drug cartels and human smugglers thrive under Joe Biden’s watch as deadly fentanyl and traffickers pour into our communities. American families are thankful House Republicans will continue to hold Biden and Democrats accountable for their failures."