New data from Customs and Border Protection shows the number of apprehensions along the U.S.-Mexico border fell again last month, and most migrants are still being sent back across the border to Mexico under pandemic-era protocols. 

Border Patrol agents encountered almost 160,000 people across the border in October, according to a count on the agency's website, down from just over 196,000 in September. The majority of those crossing were single adults, and most were sent back to Mexico almost immediately under Title 42. 

The little-known Centers for Disease Control and Prevention code was enacted by the Trump administration at the onset of the pandemic and allows Border Patrol agents to swiftly turn away migrants and asylum seekers on public health grounds. Despite calls from public health experts and rights activists to end the policy, the Biden administration has kept it in place. 

This month former CDC official Dr. Anne Schuchat told a Congressional hearing the decision to enact the policy was not supported by science.