Nearly 60,000 undocumented children were apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border between October 2015 and March 2016, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data released last week.

The volume of incoming children is nowhere near summer 2014, when tens of thousands fled continued violence across Central America, but it does represent a 78 percent increase from 2015.

Family units captured - those with at least one child - reached 32,117, a 131-percent jump from the previous year; unaccompanied children totaled 27,754.

"It remains to be seen whether apprehensions of unaccompanied children or families will surge this summer and surpass the full-year apprehension total totals from two years ago," wrote Jens Manuel Krogstad, writer and editor with the Pew Research Center.

"This fiscal year, family and unaccompanied children apprehensions spiked in December 2015, and in January 2016 the Department of Homeland Security launched immigration raids targeting families," Krogstad said. "Since then, monthly border apprehensions have dropped below 2014 levels."

Pushback Against Ongoing Raids

The January raids were part of Operation Border Guardian: a deportation strategy the Obama administration implemented in their ongoing effort to enforce immigration laws. The number of illegal crossings decreased by 36 percent soon after, but pro-immigration advocates worry this sends the wrong signal to the country's undocumented communities.

"We hear that children are not going to school and parents are not going to work out of fear. Not even a week into the New Year and 2016 has turned into one of fear and hiding," Illinois Rep. Luis Gutierrez said following the first round of deportations.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson released a statement last March stating that the measures applied to individuals who arrive as an unaccompanied child after Jan. 1, 2014. Johnson said the only targets were those who are 18 years of age and have been ordered removed by an immigration court.

U.S. Officials Ready for Another Surge

The Department of Homeland Security is anticipating another surge of migrants this summer, and the Department of Health and Human Services has requested an additional $400 million in funding for unaccompanied minor programs. Earlier this year, HHS announced plans to open three temporary shelters across the southwest, in addition to a recent 700-bed facility opened in Texas.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske says taking in undocumented children is less a border security issue and more one of border management. While three temporary shelters were scheduled to open this year, one planned for Colorado was shelves due to budget restraints.

"They were turning themselves into the agents and walking right up to them," Kerlikowske told the Harvard Political Review. "They weren't being pursued. We didn't have resources in health care, in logistical resources, in transportation, in food, and it was very overwhelming to the border patrol stations."

He added, "We have a lot more resources now in holding facilities, in contracts from all of those things mentioned, but the legal ruling on making a decision about those children is that the decision is made through the (HHS) about where to place that child that is in his/her best interest."

UPDATE: 5/18/2016: The original story noted the HHS opened a 700-bed facility in Texas. The governement agency does not currently operate this shelter. HHS opened a temporary shelter open in Texas between December and January, but it is no longer operational.