Good morning. Welcome to Axios today. It's Wednesday, March 3rd. I'm Nyla Boone. Here's

what you need to know today. The dire water situation in Jackson, Mississippi, plus changes

to how ads track you online. But first, why migrants are fleeing to the U.S. is today's

one big thing.

Yesterday, President Biden got the latest numbers on migrant children crossing the border

by themselves. This year, it's expected to hit a record 117,000 children. That's according

to a scoop by Axios' political reporter, Steph Kite, who has been tracking President

Biden's response to the increasing crisis at the border. This influx of child migrants

is not the first. Former President Trump and Obama faced similar crises. So we wanted

to take a step back and look at why these surges happen. Steph, what's happening now that's

forcing migrants to leave their home countries?

Yeah, so when it comes to why we're seeing this spike in border crossings right now, there

are some more short-term trends. For example, there were two devastating hurricanes in Honduras

that left thousands homeless. The pandemic has also had a part in this. There are also

longer-term trends that we have to account for, too. For example, we actually usually do

see border numbers start to rise around this time of year. And of course, many of these migrants

are coming from Central American countries like Honduras and Guatemala and El Salvador. And

those places have been known to have ongoing issues with gang violence and poverty and

other issues that tend to force migrants to flee those countries and come to the US.

Steph, is it change in administration part of this also? Do people see the Biden administration

being more welcoming?

It definitely has an effect. When you talk to people who study migration patterns, they

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